Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The point I wish to make concerns the local property tax. I note in today's newspaper that a small one-bedroom worker's cottage in Colliers Avenue in Ranelagh sold for over €300,000. That is €1,000 per square foot. I looked at comparable prices - what one would get for that kind of money - in the midlands of this country on one of these property sites and noticed one house with six bedrooms, loose boxes, a one-acre paddock and tarmacadamed driveways for the same price in the midlands. I will not mention where it is because I do not want to wreck the prospects of whoever is selling it. That a tiny cottage - and it is tiny - could attract the same liability in taxes to support local government services as a very extensive house with outhouses, paddocks, loose boxes and six bedrooms in the midlands underlines the unfairness of the local property tax to people who live in Dublin.The Government is talking about reviewing the local property tax and such a review is more than overdue at this point. Due to no fault or action of their own, it is getting more and more expensive for people in some areas to live in very modest homes. Those individuals are entitled to some justice. I ask the Leader to request that the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, come before the House to explain why he thinks the local property tax is working out fairly. I think it is deeply unjust.