Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

There are 6,000 properties in the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council area that are outside the net. At an average local property tax of €675 in the area - it is lower than the real average but we can use it as the figure - this equates to €4 million gone that the local authority could do with.

I will read an extract from a letter in The Irish Timesthe other day from a pensioner. It states:

I believe in paying my fair share but this is unjust. I urge the Government to modify this local property tax in a fair and just manner, and to have regard to the very limited and low income of many older people in our State.

I will leave the Minister of State with that.

There is a need for some exemptions but not these exemptions. We must look again, particularly at older people who are in houses. They are described many times as "empty nesters", which I find very offensive language. These people live in their homes and it is where they have communities. They want to stay there and they should not be penalised for that. I ask the Minister of State to bear that in mind when the local property tax is reconsidered or reviewed.