Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I understand the gist of the argument and accept what the Senator said. He highlighted regarding Dún Laoghaire the large amounts of money that may be due to a local authority when the changes are made next year. They will flow into 2022. As I said, the figure nationwide will be approximately €32 million.

The programme for Government includes the provision for fairness and most homeowners will face no increase. Although there will be a change in the tax, it is proposed there should not be an increase. The Senator has pointed out the difficulty that the tax is based on property rather than income. There is a strong case that there should be some appreciation of a person's income if he or she is in a high value property but it is not part of the legislation enacted in 2013. There is no doubt that when we see the legislation early next year, there will be quite a debate on that element.

We will have specific legislation rather than including it in the Finance Bill that will come before this House shortly. It has previously been ruled that local property tax measures do not come within the definition of a money Bill provision as contained in Article 22 of the Constitution. Stand-alone legislation will come before the Houses of the Oireachtas on this early next year. I thank the Senator for raising the topic.