Jimmy Harte (Labour) | Oireachtas source

In the context of Senator Hayden's contribution regarding the deadline for the property tax, I heard a councillor this morning on the "Today with Pat Kenny" programme say that there is an elite in this country who do not pay tax and who are very well off. They are the people who own houses worth anywhere between €2 million and €4 million whom she claims to be protecting. Such people can well afford it but are dodging the tax because they can hide assets in various ways. We need a culture in this country where people who are well off pay their taxes. Those same people are being protected by those who are claiming to be protecting working class people. The anti-household charge campaigners are looking after the wealthy in the country because it is they who have their wealth in their properties. It is bizarre for someone to be a member of the Socialist Party in Ireland but to be against a property tax for houses that are worth millions of euro.

I ask the Leader to arrange for a debate on the passport service. Members of this and the other House will undoubtedly receive phone calls over the summer from people whose passports are out of date. I suggest that we discuss a more efficient way to issue passports. We get renewal reminders from the motor tax office a month before our motor tax is due. Indeed, if one pays one's motor tax four times per year, one gets four reminders. I do not see why we cannot put a similar reminder system in place for passports, particularly as passports are generally only renewed once every five or ten years.

We should also look at the possibility of staggering passport renewals. If my passport is out of date in July, that is probably because I went on holidays in July. It will be due to be renewed in July, as is the case with an enormous number of passports. If some July renewals could be pushed back to November, for example, it would allow the passport service to spread renewals more evenly throughout the year. At present, the bulk of renewals are in the summer, in January and at Easter. I ask the Leader to arrange a debate on the passport service.