Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

A headline today, which is meant to cheer us in some way, indicates that house prices have shown the biggest monthly gain in five years, with hopes of recovery for homeowners. This is nothing of the sort as the increase is 0.5%. This issue should be debated as part of the Leader's preparation for the budget, as it will be the base for the property tax. This must be weighed against people with declines in incomes, and I hope the Government will not be misled by this kind of headline. One must include 80,000 empty houses on ghost estates, with 22% of mortgages in trouble, including 50,000 buy-to-let mortgages. Additionally, house prices have been artificially held up to make banks look better so we do not have to recapitalise them. We need to know the taxable capacity that exists in figuring out the ability to pay the property tax. I ask the Leader to include a discussion of the property tax in his series of pre-budget debates.