Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

What would people in County Kerry know about buses? I am not thinking of ourselves in trying to table amendments but of the staff of the Houses. Last week we held particularly good debates with the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Richard Bruton, whom I am pleased has retained his position. I told him that he had done a good job to date. In the first 90 days of term only one Government Bill was published and dealt with by the Dáil and the Seanad. Today, six Bills will be taken. This is not the way for any parliament to do its business. The Leader agrees and I am not making a political charge, but the House should send this message.

I congratulate the new Ministers and Ministers of State appointed in recent days. I will not go through all of their names because I do not know half of them. For them and their families, it was an important announcement. It is an honour for them to serve in their new roles and I wish them all well. I commit to supporting them when our group believes they are doing the right thing and to holding them to account when they do not. I take the Leader's point about the appointment of Ministers of State today will may result in changes to the schedule.

The substantive issue I wish to raise relates to the property tax which Fine Gael and the Labour Party have termed the local property tax, even though we know that it is not, given the fact that not one cent of what was collected last year went to local authorities. Yesterday, Fingal County Council, the local authority on which I served and which covers the area in which I reside, passed a Fianna Fáil motion - I commend my colleagues on the council - committing to a reduction of 15% in the property tax for hard-pressed home owners. We gave that commitment during the local elections. Other parties supported the motion which was passed with 30 votes for, zero against and seven abstentions. Other local authorities will, rightly, do the same, but the former Minister, Deputy Phil Hogan, deliberately delayed publication of regulations governing how local authorities would go about advising Revenue of such changes. We are nearing the recess and there is a new Labour Party Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government in Deputy Alan Kelly. Using his good offices, will the Leader ask the new Minister to publish the regulations immediately in order that local authorities such as Fingal County Council that have, rightly, agreed to pass on the maximum reduction of 15% to home owners will know what needs to be done in advising Revenue?

Under section 20 of the Finance (Local Property Tax) Act 2012, when a local authority avails of the capacity to reduce or increase the rate by plus or minus 15%, as Fingal County Council has done, it must inform the Revenue Commissioners so that the latter will know that the reduced rate applies to households in that area. The regulations cannot be delayed past September because local authorities across the country will be finalising their budgets in the coming months. I am calling on the new Minister to publish them without delay. I take this opportunity to congratulate the former Minister, Deputy Phil Hogan, on his appointment as European Commissioner and wish our colleague, Senator Pat O'Neill, all the best when he joins the Commissioner's cabinet in Brussels.

I ask that the new Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, come to the House in September to discuss the local property tax, particularly the issue of subventions. I will make a final point.