Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. It is becoming evident that this charge will place a major burden on people. For example, in a non-owner-occupied house who is liable - the owner or the tenant? If the owner is liable will the tenant become liable for the charge? There is already a fee of €200 for non-residential property and now another fee of €100 must be paid too, in addition to the septic tank charge of €50. It is becoming a very big burden for anybody who owns a house. It is only now becoming obvious what is happening. Ultimately, most landlords will transfer the money to their tenants because they will have no choice and the tenants will have that burden. Many landlords are carrying the non-residential fee and perhaps many of them will carry this charge too but it will reduce the return on houses while the cost of servicing the debt remains.

I refer to people who are in negative equity - what is their position? If they bought a house or apartment in Dublin for €300,000 which is now worth €160,000, will they also be liable for this yearly charge of €100? The situation is becoming very difficult. The only fair way to assess this would be to work out the valuation process and return to a way of equity. A millionaire lives in Ballsbridge; a widow lives on a small farm or in a cottage in Roscommon town. Both are liable for the charge of €100. This seems to be an impossible kind of legislation. In a sense it is like the poll tax in Britain except that in that case the number of persons in each house was counted. That was a very unpopular tax.

The public are really very quiet. They have been that way since Fine Gael and the Labour Party went into government. During our last period in government we were under siege.