I move amendment No. 1: In page 3, between lines 23 and 24, to insert the following: “Report on the accessibility of the local property tax exemption for those affected by defective concrete blocks 3. The Minister shall, within 3 months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a report on the accessibility of the local property tax exemption for those affected by defective concrete blocks.”. This amendment calls on the Minister, within three months of the passing of this Act, to prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a report on the accessibility of the local property tax exemption for those who are affected by the defective concrete blocks crisis, or scandal as it really is. The people who have been affected by defective concrete blocks have been unfairly treated as they have not been offered the same 100% redress as the scheme provided in Dublin and north Leinster. Many homeowners are having to severely dig deep into their own pockets and borrow from others to try to make up the shortfall that is built into the Government's scheme. That can be in the region of between €70,000 and €80,000 or more. Many others simply cannot avail of the scheme because that type of money is not available to them. They cannot get loans for it. There is nobody to borrow from. There is no family to try to help them out with that. That is the injustice of the scheme. This legislation will increase local property tax on every home across the State. Whether that is by €5 or €250, that is a fact. Everybody is going to pay a bit more at a time when we would argue local property tax should be scrapped. The issue here is that those who live in a defective block house at least should not have to pay local property tax. Many homeowners in the scheme are already dealing with severe financial pressure because they are having to deal with issues with their own homes, which are unsafe and unsound. There is additional cost in some cases where walls are damp or repairs have to be done to electrics and so on because of ingress of water. We want to ensure no individual affected by defective concrete blocks comes under the local property tax. Under this legislation, the threshold has to be met to get an exemption. Will the Minister outline what that threshold is? There are people, for example, who have defective blocks but are not able to get the certificate because the damage is not severe enough to get on the scheme. Therefore, a notification is not issued under section 15(5), despite the fact they are living in an affected house and impacted by all this. It is about the crack or numerous cracks in the walls and whether they have opened to the degree that a coin can be placed in them. It is said the changes are necessary due to the changes in the scheme. Can the Minister confirm there will still be people who have tested their homes and are living with defective concrete blocks but, because they do not satisfy the damage threshold at this point in time, will have to pay local property tax? Alternatively, will he accept this amendment, which would ensure nobody with defective concrete blocks would pay local property tax.

Sentiment score: -0.26

I thank the Minister for clarifying that thousands of families in homes with defective blocks will have to continue to pay local property tax. That is the reality. The defective blocks are there. The fact only 1,000 have an exemption shows the restrictive measures in place. There are families living with this horror and this nightmare. Let us be clear: the local property tax will not change their world. There are bigger issues with the scheme that the Government is failing them dramatically on. There is an issue with the damage threshold arising when the test is done, it says there is defective blocks in the home and people are living with that experience. If those people fill up the cracks, for example, then they do not meet the damage threshold. Did the Minister know that? Despite the nightmare they are undergoing, Government thinks it is appropriate that they will be paying local property tax on their home. They should self-declare that the value of the home is zero because its value at that stage is probably just the land value. Very few would buy a defective blocks home and a house will not be sold in Donegal without a test in the first instance. The issue is, as the Minister confirmed, there will be people living with defective concrete blocks in their homes and they will still, under this legislation, have to pay local property tax. That is wrong and that is why I am pressing the amendment.

Sentiment score: -0.21

I move amendment No. 2: In page 3, between lines 23 and 24, to insert the following: "Report outlining a roadmap for the removal of local property tax from principal private residences without loss of revenue to local authorities 3. The Minister shall, within 3 months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a report outlining a roadmap for the removal of local property tax from principal private residences without loss of revenue to local authorities.". This amendment again calls on the Government to prepare and lay before the Dáil, within three months of passing the Bill, a report outlining "a roadmap for the removal of local property tax from principal private residences without loss of revenue to local authorities". Obviously, that would be done through the Exchequer funding the local authorities with the money that would be lost. It will not come as any surprise to the Minister that Sinn Féin opposes the local property tax. Every year, we present the Government with an alternative budget in which we fully account for phasing out the tax, an alternative way of doing things and a way of scrapping the local property tax while also funding local authorities with the revenue they would forgo. The Government, including the Minister, has claimed the legislation is necessary because of the revaluation in November, but the revaluation is a political choice. It is not set in stone; it is a measure Government has introduced. The political choice has had consequences. We have seen deferrals in the past. The revaluation should not be applied because it will force people into higher bands and therefore to pay more local property tax. As I have said on numerous occasions, we are in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, a crisis that is really biting down hard on so many individuals. Instead of doing what is right, the Government is pushing ahead with a revaluation to reflect the runaway cost of housing. It is responsible for that runaway cost because we know it is not just evident here in the capital or indeed the larger cities. House prices have spiralled completely out of control as a direct result of the failure of the Government's housing policy. It is planning to increase the tax on individuals. For many people, their house is not a clean asset. They will have a liability, a mortgage, so the house will not be a net asset. We proposed a wealth tax that would include property but with exemptions. It would apply to net wealth and therefore loans and mortgages on the property would be subtracted from the value. According to the CSO, house prices increased by 23% between November 2021 and the end of 2024. Prices have continued to go up this year, so the increase is way more than 23%. We are aware that the average house price broke the €600,000 mark in this city recently, which is just crazy. I recall standing here talking about house prices reaching various figures but this is just unbelievable. It never stops under this Government. Prices just keep going up and up. One always asks when the penny will drop or when the Government will say it has got it wrong because prices, rents, homelessness rates, including the child homelessness rate, and the number of young people leaving the country keep going up. Some 100,000 people born in this country are now living in Australia alone. Daft.ie has reported that we are on course this year for the highest increase in ten years. The listed price in the second quarter of the year was 12.3% higher than that of last year. With all this information, the Government has decided to increase the charging bands by 20%. Daft.ie is telling us we will hit the highest increase in ten years in 2025. We already have seen an increase of 23%, and that was up to the end of last year. It is still going up this year. The Government has just increased the bands by 20%, knowing some people will go into a higher band and therefore pay more money. On examining the decision county by county, its unfairness becomes even more obvious. The biggest changes to house prices are in Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Monaghan and Sligo. If you lie a map indicating areas of deprivation in the State on top of a map showing the counties, you will find that the counties in the north west, the Border counties, are among the most deprived. Donegal has the highest levels of deprivation in the State, yet in that county house prices have increased by over 35%. Laois, Longford, Offaly, Westmeath, Galway, Mayo and Roscommon have all seen an increase of 33%, and that is before the continuation of the increase this year. The property tax is going up for everyone but it will go up by a band for many. They will see a substantial increase. Many in my county, Donegal, will see their property tax bill more than double. This will happen because a home in Donegal that was worth €190,000 in 2021 has increased in value by over 30% so far, which is still below the average for the county. The home would now be valued at €247,000, meaning its local property tax would go from €90 to €230. This is €140 extra, which is more than a doubling of the tax paid to date. I made this point to the Minister on Second Stage and, in fairness to him, he has not disputed that these are the facts of the matter. We are in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis and should not be passing legislation that will increase a tax on individuals. Regardless of whether it is by €5, €250 or €500, it does not matter; it should not be done. The Minister talked about how we cannot control inflation and so on, yet things like this, when the local property tax goes up a few quid, petrol and diesel go up a bit, the shopping goes up a bit because hauliers have to pay more to get it into the shops, gas bills go up because the Government decided to put carbon tax on gas, there is another increase on other items the Government has dealt with, and rents have gone up because the Government is refusing to ban rent increases, are the things that make up inflation. This is why people feel so much pressure. This is another example of it. We in Sinn Féin believe that the local property tax should not go ahead. It should be scrapped and phased out, which is what this amendment seeks to do.

Sentiment score: 0.02

Mar a dúirt mé, tá an Rialtas ag cur na cánach seo ar achan teach ar fud an Stáit agus go leor i gcruachás ó thaobh costas de. The Minister rightly made the point that if you abolish the local property tax, then you have to provide the money to the local authorities. He gave a figure of €600 million. We have shown the Minister time and time again where that €600 million can be generated, but they are political choices too and I respect the fact that Fine Gael does not want to do those political choices. It does not want to introduce a third rate of tax that would apply to individual income above €140,000. It does not want to go after gold-plated pensions that would see people who have pension pots in excess of €1.5 million taxed appropriately. They are the choices. The choice is that some people in my county will have to pay double the local property tax. Everybody else will have to pay a little bit more. They are the wrong choices, in my view, and for those reasons, I am pressing the amendment.

Sentiment score: -0.03

This is where there is a difference of opinion. The Minister has eloquently outlined why we are not going to tax one group but, rather, will tax another group instead. In fairness, the local property tax will affect everybody. Everybody will pay more in tax this year, but the guy who has a pension pot of €2.5 million can afford the extra bit in local property tax. That is the difference. Take the example of the person who lives over the road from me, cares for their loved one, gets carer’s allowance and works the extra 19 hours when they are able to earn by putting food on the table for workers and people in the community. When we add it all together, that person comes home with something like €24,000 per year and has to try to raise a family with it. These are the people whose local property tax is going to double. This is about fairness. Who do we put the burden on? Taxation is about where we place the burden. Do we place a burden on people who, in the Minister’s words, play a valuable role in society through the jobs they do? The woman who cooks the breakfast plays a valuable role. A trainee nurse in third or fourth year who only gets a few pounds plays a valuable role. The cleaner who goes into my local school plays a crucial role. The SNA who helps my wee nephew plays an unbelievable role. None of them are on €140,000-plus but under this legislation the burden will fall on them at the same level as it will fall on people with very high incomes. The Minister asked me where this money would come from as if we would have to find it and it would be impossible to find. That is not the case. There are countless other examples. A good idea would be to ask the vulture funds, which charge crazy rents and which the Minister facilitated over and over again through finance Bills, to pay tax on their rental income. They do not pay tax on their rental income. People out there who do some of the jobs I mentioned earlier are handing over €2,000 or €3,000 to these funds but the funds, because of their structure, do not have to pay any tax on rental income within the fund. They pay tax only when they pay off dividends, and we know all about how that can be reduced. There are numerous ways to gather that revenue; that is not the issue. The issue is the Government is wedded to this idea and that is its ideology, that is the choice people have, and I completely oppose it. I will push this to a vote and I ask the Chair to facilitate it. I know the Government will decide to vote against it and that is its prerogative but, in my view, this is a tax that should be phased out. At the very least, at a time when we have an €8.4 billion surplus this year and a surplus of €6.3 billion expected next year,let us not ask people to pay more. That is within our power. I have tabled another amendment that would be a compromise and would ensure nobody pays more. Nobody would have to go up a band and nobody would have to pay more in local property tax. That is the fair thing. This tax should be ended.

Sentiment score: 0.07

It is a dangerous thing to say the public was not convinced by my argument. Those are the words the Minister used. I remind the Minister that in excess of 18,000 people voted for me. The people in Donegal were fairly convinced of my arguments. I am not sure how many people voted for the Minister as a first preference but it was not at that level. I would not go into that silly type of argument because we know a multitude of arguments are put forward in terms of the electorate. To suggest the electorate did not agree with my argument, there are enough facts to show, by getting the highest vote in the State, that does not stand up to scrutiny. If the Minister is suggesting it is the party, we would have to look at the whole party apparatus and what it was and what it did and did not agree on. That is the beauty of democracy and I respect the fact people want to look after those who are cushioned. That is fine. The Minister is entitled to do that and if there are enough people there to vote for it, that is fine. We saw a situation where in the previous election Fine Gael came third and still ended up in government. That is getting away from the point. If there is tax to be raised, where does the burden fall? I made the point earlier that there are people who will be impacted by this. The Minister may dismiss it as small amounts and so on but it adds up when it is an extra bit in one's home insurance, car insurance, groceries, heating, home heating oil and electricity. It all adds up. That is where the pressures are. There are a group of people out there who notice all of these cent and euro. There are other groups who do not notice them at all. I was at a committee earlier where the Minister for public expenditure spoke about 32 Ministers - all the Ministers in the current Government bar six - who were overpaid and none of them noticed it. Some were overpaid by up to €30,000. I am not blaming the individual Ministers because it is not their job to calculate that. Then we have 30 senior civil servants who were also overpaid, and at least one of them to the tune of €280,000, and if they did notice it, they did not tell anybody. There were 30 of them. How were they overpaid by €280,000? It was because they have pension pots in excess of €2 million. When one has a pension pot in excess of €2 million, one has to pay a particular tax the Minister is well familiar with and that tax was not applied properly on the portion above €2 million. The people I spoke about earlier who cannot afford this burden would notice if they got paid €280,000 more. They would notice if they got paid €30,000 more. Indeed, they would notice if they got paid €500 more. There are at least two different realities here. There are people who are well off. There are people who are comfortable, who do not like to see prices rise and who do not like to see house prices or rents rise because it is more money our of their pockets but they can afford it. It will not put them into a difficult situation. Then there are others, a huge number of them, who are forgotten by this Government and this is another issue where the Government is placing a burden on them unfairly. That will be a discussion we will continue to have. I will continue to try to increase my vote, as I am sure the Minister will try to increase his vote, and continue to win the hearts and minds on that issue and many more. The election is over. This is about fairness and where those burdens fall. The Minister did not answer the question about the vulture funds and why we do not tax their rental income. The Minister has defended that for the hilt for many years. It is completely and utterly unjustifiable. These are the options we have. I know the Government's position on this. I disagree with it and will push this amendment to a vote.

Sentiment score: -0.03

I move amendment No. 7: In page 5, between lines 21 and 22, to insert the following: “Amendment of section 17 of Act of 2012 7. Section 17 of the Act of 2012 is amended— (a) in subsection (4), by the substitution of “0.000742” for “0.001029”, (b) in subsection (5)— (i) by the substitution of “€1,260,000” for “€1,050,000”, and (ii) by the substitution of “0.000906” for “0.001029”, (c) in subsection (6)— (i) by the substitution of “€2,100,000” for “€1,750,000” in each place where it occurs, (ii) by the substitution of “€1,260,000” for “€1,050,000”, and (iii) by the substitution of “0.000906” for “0.001029”, and (d) by the substitution of the following Table for the Table to that section: "TABLE ". I discussed this already in the context of the effect it would have of not pushing up prices as a compromise.

Sentiment score: -0.07