Michael D'Arcy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is welcome. Nobody welcomes a new tax, however, and I am sure the Minister would prefer not to have introduced this one, had there had been other options. One must compare the option of a property tax that would raise ¤500 million versus an increase in income tax. The figures I received from the Department on the Minister's budget submission show that income tax is expected to bring in ¤15.75 billion next year. Listening to representatives from the OECD and the Irish Taxation Institute, it is clear we have gone to the limit in regard to income tax. There is no scope to go further. That leaves the option to introduce a new property tax, which I have described as the re-introduction of rates that were dissolved in the 1970s. It may be unpleasant but there are few other options.

I refer to the anti-urban notion, that this is a Dublin tax.