Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of the Fianna Fáil group I wholeheartedly welcome the professor. We are honoured to have him here.

If it were not for the fact that it would eat into the important time for discussion of the property tax Bill, we would be proposing a vote on the Order of Business today. The property tax is a serious issue and one that will have an impact on the lives and wallets of every household. To guillotine this discussion in just three hours is fundamentally wrong. I ask the Leader to reconsider and to make more time available to discuss the issue. As we know, the tax is deeply unsettling for most of Ireland. It will be extremely unfair for those in the larger cities such as Dublin, where people have collectively paid billions of euro in stamp duty over the years, to be penalised again in this way. People who wish to defer the tax will be treated like criminals and tax defaulters and forced to pay a rate of interest that is linked specifically to tax defaulters. The threshold at which one is entitled to defer is pitifully low and excludes most of the people throughout the country who have had mortgage difficulties.

I acknowledge that the Leas-Chathaoirleach ruled out of order a proposed matter on the Adjournment. I ask for an urgent debate on the NRA's proposed cuts to 80 projects throughout the country, which are to be suspended. As Senator Comiskey rightly pointed out, some of those projects are more worthy than others, and some are critically important in view of the fatalities that have been caused over the years. Yesterday, Senator Comiskey rightly mentioned the N4 in Sligo, a stretch of road described by a coroner as the most deadly road in Ireland and responsible for the loss of 30 lives in as many years. That road project is now to be suspended. Apparently, under the jobs initiative the Government will hand-pick some of the projects to go ahead, using criteria to be determined, for the creation of employment. I hope priority is given to the seriousness of the difficulties that have been caused and the fatalities throughout the country, and that the road project to which I referred will be included, given the fact that the road is so dangerous. I hope we will not take the approach of the Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, to selecting projects. In that case, it was the proximity to his Cabinet colleagues that determined which projects went ahead. Sligo County Council received a letter informing it that it could not proceed any further with the N4 project. I understand that Mayo County Council did not receive a letter about the Castlebar to Westport stretch, but we all know who lives at either end of that particular road. We will revisit the matter. I hope that when the roads to be worked on are selected under the jobs initiative, the N4 is prioritised. It has been described as the most dangerous road in the country. Those are not my words but those of the coroner for the area.