Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have listened to the usual suspects talking about the local property tax the way they talked about the household charges and septic tanks. They are the very people who have inflicted extra charges on people. They persuaded people not to register their septic tanks and now those people must pay much more and cannot qualify for grants. They did the same with the household charge and those people must now pay much more as a result of being told by some parties not to pay.

We are facing the same problem with the local property charge. This Government was brought in to fix the national finances in a manner which supports work and job creation. People are talking about income taxes but further increases in income tax would have a very negative impact on job creation. The Government has said that on numerous occasions. The local property tax is six times more job friendly than taxes on labour and that comments comes not from the Government but from the ESRI. In designing the tax, the Government has ensured that it is fair and progressive with owners of the most valuable property paying the most.

The local property tax will be used to pay for vital public services including local enterprise and job supports; fire services, road maintenance which is mentioned on the Order of Business daily, libraries and recreational amenities. The tax also takes into account people's ability to pay it through a series of deferral arrangements, as was advocated by the Minister this morning. As a measure of fairness, the vast majority of people will pay something and the Revenue will ensure compliance and collection of the tax.

Fianna Fáil signed up in 2010, in its negotiations with the IMF, about which it did not tell anybody, to the proposed introduction of a property tax with the objective of raising ¤530 million by 2014. In its latest prebudget submission it also left in the flat ¤100 household charge. That is the record of Fianna Fáil in terms of this property tax being in place.

As regards Sinn Féin, it opposes the introduction of this fair and progressive tax but it appears to have no problem whatsoever with there being a property tax in Northern Ireland where the owner of an average house pays approximately £1,000 in domestic rates annually. No deferrals are provided for people irrespective of whether they live in council houses or mansions in Northern Ireland.

This is a fair tax on assets and such a tax is commonplace throughout the developed world, of that there is no question. The reason Sinn Féin along with other so-called socialists would oppose this tax, I suggest, is a tribute only to their political opportunism.

The Revenue Commissioners will be looking after this tax. The Minister has outlined the deferrals and the exemptions for households. I commend this Bill to the House.