Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Putting the money into water is a cheat. We had all the marches in the streets and then the Government said it was withdrawing water charges. It decided to divert some of the money from property tax. Given the rate at which properties are going up in value it will catch up on the €1 billion it was going to collect anyway. That really has to stop. The Government has no idea how difficult it is for ordinary, hard working people to live, particularly public servants who are on fixed incomes and anybody working in the private sector who is on a fixed income. Property prices are going through the roof. Where are people going to get the money? I got notice recently that my waste charges are about to go up. There is talk of introducing charges for green bins. Everything is going up continuously but my income has not changed very much, and I doubt that I will see much of a change in my lifetime. Certainly in my working lifetime I will not see much change.

This tax was a fudge when it was introduced. It was just another way of making money, as was the FEMPI legislation. It was introduced with the most stringent methodology for collecting it so people cannot evade it. For its own sake the Government should take a long, hard look at it. Incidentally, with regard to bringing back the guy who designed it, he made a dog's dinner of it so I would find somebody else to conduct the review.