Denis Landy (Labour)

With regard to the €75,000 provision referred to by the previous speaker, Senator Ó Domhnaill, I too cannot support it. What is the basis for it? I would prefer not to doubt the bona fides of Senator Cullinane's sincerity but his own party has put itself forward as being the Thirty-two County party, yet we note what Sinn Féin is implementing north of the Border where there are only two groups of exemptions and there is no poverty-proofing whatsoever as regards the property tax. Also, a cap on payment applies whereby any house over £400,000 in value does not pay any extra tax. This is not equitable. I said yesterday I could not go along with something which in the longer term would charge the tenant purchaser of a council house the same as a person living in a house worth a couple of million euro.

I accept this is an interim measure until a system for rating properties is introduced but I could not go along with it. North of the Border a person with a house worth £3 million will pay the same tax as a person with a house worth £400,000. There is no equitable system in place in Northern Ireland and yet we are given to believe that the concerns of Sinn Féin south of the Border are as listed by Senator Cullinane and his colleagues in this amendment. Again we see the hypocrisy of putting forward what would be termed here a passionate concern for the poor but, 100 miles up the road, we see that all of these people are disregarded and no effort is being made by his party in government in Northern Ireland to implement the same type of scheme.