Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief. First, in terms of legalities, it cannot be called a family home tax because it encompasses property that is not the family home. For the sake of argument, it encompasses rental properties and a number of other forms of property.

Second, yesterday I posed a question as to whether this was genuinely a local property tax, but following a conversation with the Minister's adviser I was satisfied that it will be a local property tax, that the money that is spent in my locality will go back to my locality - not in 2013 but in 2014 - and that there will be some redistribution to other areas of the country where the taxes would not be sufficient to pay for local amenities and so forth.

The reality is two-fold. First, it is not correct to call this a family home tax because it covers more than the family home. Second, it is what it says it is; a local property tax for the provision of local services. I could not support the amendments.