Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This motion is a typical cynical motion from Fianna Fáil but to be fair, it is only taking up Fine Gael's lead on it. Those parties which supported the local property tax are now running afraid of it. Of course it is due to increase. The whole idea when it was introduced was that as property prices went up so too would the tax. That was too much to accept before the election so the can had to be kicked down the road. Now the great proposal is to kick it down the road again to make the next increase even steeper.

The Government should stand over the logic of its tax. I read the Minister of State's speech. It states the introduction of the local property tax provided an opportunity for political reform at local level. It has not done what it was supposed to do. I came from and live in a local authority. Local authorities are starved of finance. Not only that, decision-making within local authorities is still centralised in central government and at a European level and chief executives within the council make decisions. It certainly has not given more decision-making to elected representatives. The Government has not delivered the type of reform which was intended. People still do not have water, sewerage, proper roads and all of those things. People are annoyed because they do not see any benefit from the tax.

The local property tax was introduced at the lowest point in the property cycle, making the increases inevitable. Even those currently excluded because they bought properties in 2013 can only buy a little more time. There are people in deep mortgage distress paying this so-called wealth tax. For them it is simply a tax on debt. Throughout his speech, the Minister of State referred to the importance of stability. Where is the stability for people who are paying a tax on debt?

I note the calls for reform, but what did these parties think was going to happen when they linked the tax to property? The motion is deliberately vague and designed to give the impression that something is being done. I have no idea what ability to pay and affordability issues are, and I do not know if anybody else does. In its report, the Parliamentary Budget Office set out four choices: no policy change, that is, the 2019 revaluation would go ahead as planned; to freeze valuations at 2013 levels; to revalue and adjust rates nationally to maintain overall yield; and to revalue and adjust rates locally to maintain overall yield. The Thornhill review supports the last option. As Senator Norris points out, we cannot have somebody reviewing a tax when he designed it in the first place.

One of the options is to revalue and adjust rates locally to maintain the overall yield. Maybe this is what Fianna Fáil is getting at but that would require some householders to pay more to allow others to pay less. Is that what this motion is about? If it is the case, Fianna Fáil needs to be honest about it. For Sinn Féin there is a fifth option, and a fair option, namely, scrap the local property tax-----