Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to make one point. There could be two families, one of whom lives in a small red-brick terraced house somewhere between here and Ringsend, for example, and who could have a 90% mortgage on a house which cost them between €450,000 and €500,000. The other family could live in a 6,000 sq. ft. restored Georgian or Victorian villa in the midlands and, based on the property price website I recently looked at, they would be liable for the same amount. The family in Ringsend, as I said, might have a mortgage of 80% or 90% on their house whereas the family in the midlands might have none and might also have a farm of 300 acres but would contribute the same amount as the family in Dublin to their local authority. The unfairness of all of this is that the tax does not in any sense reflect the actual wealth of the owners, in particular if there is a 90% mortgage.

The second point is that there is a way to deal with this, that is, to provide for a different system of valuation and banding of houses in local authority areas so that, if one does live in a very substantial house outside Dublin, one should pay more to the local authority, and if one has a very large farm, one should pay more to the local authority than a family in Dublin in those circumstances.

When it comes to defraying the cost of local government in Ireland, the family living between here and Ringsend might have as their principal breadwinner a man or woman who is also renting office accommodation or some kind of workplace in Dublin, and they might be paying up to €900 on their home and €2,000 in commercial rates, whereas the couple living in the large place in Longford or Laois might be paying only €900 to their local authority. This is unfair.One local authority that has only raised €2 million in local property tax, LPT, from its residents and has received €7 million in transferred money from Dubliners actually voted to reduce its LPT rate by the 15% to which it was entitled. That is grossly unfair. The situation is a ticking time bomb. It is on the front pages of today's editions of the Daily Mailand the Irish Independent. The time has come for us to address this unfairness. People in different parts of the country are being treated unequally and people who are of modest means and who struggle to make a living in this city are being treated unfairly compared with people elsewhere. The Minister for Finance or the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, Deputy Coveney, or whoever assumes responsibility for LPT in its present form should be called before the House to address the issue.

I second the amendment to the Order of Business proposed by my colleague, Senator Boyhan.