UNITED LEFT Alliance TD Richard Boyd Barrett was challenged in the Dáil to detail his proposals for a fair property tax or for a levy on the wealthy.
Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore called on the Dún Laoghaire TD to “leave down your picket sign and take up your pen”, as Mr Boyd Barrett warned of a revolt if the Coalition imposed “hundreds of euro more in austerity taxes on ordinary low- and middle-income families”.
Referring to the property tax, Mr Boyd Barrett said it was becoming clear that “what is proposed will not be fairer” than the household charge. Ordinary families would be paying €500-€800 “even at the low rate of 0.25 per cent of the value of the property”.
He asked the Tánaiste: “Do you not realise that if the Government presses ahead with this tax, hundreds of thousands of families will be pushed into poverty?”
The Tánaiste’s constituency colleague said the tax “makes a mockery of the Government’s claims that you will protect children if you impose a property tax that will drive the parents of those children into poverty”.
Mr Gilmore said Mr Boyd Barrett should give his input instead of “jumping up and down and organising protests”.
The Tánaiste had never met a socialist who did not believe in a property tax and called on him to “leave down your picket sign and take up your pen and set out your proposals and what you think would be a fair system”.
Mr Boyd Barrett asked why the Government did not levy taxes on those who could afford it “rather than continuing to hammer those who cannot”.
Mr Gilmore said the tax was a programme for government commitment and added Mr Boyd Barrett should say whether he favoured a property tax. “You want to tax the super-wealthy. Let us have the detailed proposals and we will consider them.”
