Sir, – Mary Minihan’s report, “Property tax to cost 0.25 per cent of house value” (Home News, September 10th), includes the extraordinary view expressed by Minister of State for European Affairs Lucinda Creighton that there should be no automatic exemptions from property and water taxes for pensioners or social welfare recipients. This clearly implies that the Minister is of the view that those surviving on welfare support or the basic State pension may, somehow, be able to pay any such tax levied.
This shows that we are at the mercy of people who really don’t get it.
Basic welfare payments are insufficient to keep many out of poverty and there is no doubt that to reduce such income any further will see many dip into greater hardship as a result. Or maybe the Minister is eyeing any savings that people might have.
When government Ministers make such statements surely they should explain clearly and honestly what lies behind what they say. In the present climate, people – particularly the elderly – have many concerns; adding to them is both cruel and unforgivable.
Levying this tax using the same criteria as applied to the “household charge” will see many defaulting and what does the Minister see happening then? The poor and pensioners streaming before the courts? Or does she think that a lien should be put on homes so that they can be ceased by the State after the death of the occupant? Our hopes that the new government would comprise those with compassion, a sense of justice and ability has now all but evaporated.
For many, a long cold winter looms large on the horizon with the prospects of their meagre incomes being further eroded. Our moral compass is without doubt broken. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Your report (Mary Minihan, September 10th) that the property tax will be pitched at 0.25 per cent of house value means that many Dublin householders will face a bill of €1,000 or more.
Dublin, despite its relatively small geographic area, currently has four local authority areas, each with its own full-function “town hall bureaucracy”.
I support the imposition of a property tax, but fear that pouring huge amounts of extra money into the existing local authority structure in Dublin will result in a plethora of grandiose schemes and interminable road repairs as they try to spend all this money.
In conjunction with the introduction of a property tax, I urge the Government to force the amalgamation of, at a minimum, the bureaucratic functions of those four Dublin councils into a single shared-services body. Also, I suggest a cap should apply, say €500, on the amount going into local government coffers, with the balance of the property tax going to central government funds. God knows, it’s badly needed there. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Here in the US an annual property tax on one’s home is the norm. Every five or 10 years, all the houses in each town are assessed by the township and the value at that time is the basis for taxation until the next assessment.
A typical annual bill on a $500,000 house in this town would be about $5,000; across the border in Westchester which is in New York, the bill would be higher.
This tax funds schools and services like local police, fire protection.androad maintenance.
And if a property owner refuses to pay, the town can sell the house and keep the money! – Yours, etc,
Sir, – An unnamed “Government source” is cited predicting a property tax based on current house value, at a rate of 0.25 per cent per annum (Home News, September 10th). If the tax is introduced in this manner, may I suggest that it will be grossly inequitable, falling much more heavily on residents of Dublin and other urban centres where property values are higher due to market forces. For example, under this proposal the owner of a house valued at €400,000 in south Dublin would pay €1,000 per annum, while the owner of an identical house in Leitrim valued at €150,000 would pay much less, €375 per annum. This proposal appears to me to grossly discriminate against city dwellers.
If the tax is levied in this manner and is used to fund local authority services, it could have the effect of generating much more revenue in urban areas, where the cost of delivering such services is cheaper, compared to rural areas where the cost of delivering services such as road maintenance is much more expensive. This could have the strange effect of leaving urban local authorities well-funded, or indeed over-funded and creating a shortfall in rural areas.
A tax of this type will be deeply despised on grounds of basic fair play and equity. It will be extremely damaging electorally to any parties that introduce it. I remember well, for example, the reaction of the electorate of south Dublin to Minister Eithne Fitzgerald who championed a property tax of this type in the 1980s. She went from a position as a poll topper in 1982 to losing her seat in 1987. Do Fine Gael and Labour want to suffer the same fate? Will Fianna Fáil have a revival of its fortunes as the opponents of this tax, in the same way as their opposition to rates in 1977 helped them to achieve a landslide victory?
The old system of rates was flawed for many of the same reasons as the current proposal is. Would it not be more equitable to introduce a tax based on house type and size, with account taken of the household’s income? House value, after all , is a subjective concept, while square footage is easily measured. It is generally recognised that a property tax of some sort is necessary, but it should be fair, equitable, and applied in equal measure across the country. – Yours, etc,