Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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176. To ask the Minister for Finance in order to facilitate persons in receipt of Department of Social Protection payments who wish to pay their local property tax in full during the year, if he will consider allowing more than one Department of Social Protection payment to be considered for the deduction in view of the fact that most payments are €188 per week and currently only €2 is allowed to be deducted without falling below the €186 threshold, yet the individual may be receiving other payments such as living alone allowance, fuel allowance and so on which increases their weekly payments; his views that it is therefore not possible for social welfare recipients to pay their LPT in full at just €2 per week, unless their house is valued at the very lowest level, and that every effort should be made to aid those who want to clear the charge without a lump sum owing at the end of the year which is currently happening; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33956/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I have some sympathy with the matter raised by the Deputy, but as I have informed the House on a number of occasions, the concept of a 'de minimis' amount, which is linked to the supplementary welfare allowance, is enshrined in section 189 of the Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act 2005. It was considered at the time of the introduction of Local Property Tax (LPT) that it was not appropriate to change the law in this regard because the supplementary welfare allowance rate is deemed by the Department of Social Protection to be a minimum income rate to meet basic needs.

The question of allowing reckoning of all social welfare payments when calculating the 'de minimis' is a matter for my colleague the Minister for Social Protection.

However, as I previously advised in my reply to Parliamentary Questions 59 (27613/14) and 67 (27777/14) on 26 June 2014, given the rates of DSP payments, it is very important that recipients are aware that the LPT legislation provides for full and partial (50%) deferrals of the tax within certain specified thresholds. A person whose only income is a social welfare payment would be entitled to apply for deferral.