Mary White (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On 25 August there was standing room only at a public meeting I organised in Mount Merrion community centre entitled, "Cut the Inheritance Tax", where attendees asked for an urgent review of the tax. Ireland has one of the harshest inheritance tax regimes in the world, with Dubliners in particular heavily penalised by the tax. In 2014 Revenue collected €168.3 million inheritance tax from Dublin-based taxpayers. This is more than 50% of the total inheritance tax of €327 million collected nationally in the year. A number of people who attended the public meeting asked for a petition to be sent to the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, to cut the inheritance tax in the upcoming budget. We have effortlessly received 1,000 signatures. After I finish I will go to the Minister's office to hand him all of the signatures I have received. One woman who signed the petition gave her rationale by stating she signed it because she thinks it is very unfair that people work and save all their lives to provide for their families and even after their death, the Government still takes taxes from them and their loved ones. Another comment was that a family home should not be sold for tax payments as parents have worked hard and long and paid enough tax throughout their lives to leave their children with something at the end, and that it is a complete disgrace that a home full of memories would have to be sold to pay the tax.