Anthony Lawlor (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Streetlighting has been paid for and footpaths repaired. Grants have been given to local communities for festivals and doing up their estates. All these things have been done through the local property tax.

The Government should leave the valuations as they are. If local authorities want to increase their revenue they should examine doing so on the local adjustment factor or give them the power to increase the standard rate. However, it should be put back to local authorities because that is where the money will be spent and local councillors should be given this power, not central government.

I will make one final point. Some 62,000 properties have been built since 2013 which are exempt from property tax which would have been worth €61 million to the State. We might include this in the review. It might be that the valuation should be brought back to those properties to 2013 levels, as with similar houses in the area.

Those are some of my ideas. I am strangely surprised by Sinn Féin with its call for abolition when it has it in full force in the North of Ireland where it is in charge. As for Fianna Fáil, this may be a step towards the abolition of the tax and the ruination of this country once again.