Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Last week the Government decided to postpone its decision on exactly what it is going to do with the local property tax, which was first introduced in 2013. While many have questioned the motives of the postponement, I wish to raise a couple of alarming developments that are arising because nothing has been done about them. While there will be no increase in the tax in the coming year, and first-time buyers remain exempt from the tax, those who bought in 2013 will be liable from this December. Property tax is a massive issue. Recently, good honest people came into my office who, because house prices had gone up, were afraid their house insurance would not cover them properly if their homes were undervalued. Accordingly, they declared their houses to be worth more and Revenue now wants to back-tax them for being honest. This is unacceptable. Homeowners did not mean to increase their liability so it is unfair to ask them to pony up the back tax if their houses were never undervalued before this year. There is a system to appeal against a liability when the price of a house has gone down but not when it has gone up. More than 13,280 corrections to valuations have been made to Revenue, including 700 made last year. This was done by honest people who are now all liable for back tax. Were they unfairly penalised for coming forward? Maybe some had incorrectly valued their property initially and are now looking to sell it. What about those who have seen new value added to their homes? All values are going up.

My second point concerns people who, because of their means, could defer payment of the tax. The deferrals will continue but the income thresholds were recommended to increase to €18,000 for a single owner and €30,000 for a couple, up from €15,000 and €25,000, respectively. By keeping the threshold low, however, this Government is going to penalise fixed-income pensioners whose weekly payment has increased. Since last week, a pensioner couple will earn €25,800 and cannot now defer their payment.

Both these issues seem so mean in our current climate and they are very unfair. People are coming into my clinics with real concerns about them so I call on the Minister to come to the House to discuss these issues with me and Senators.