Danny Healy-Rae Slams Property Tax Impact on Rural Communities

Thank you very much, last one caller. I'm glad to get an opportunity to talk about the property tax and the new formulas that are being brought in. I suppose it's ironic that we're just emerging from a gigantic public health pandemic and people are still worried and confused and out of sorts and people have been isolated. Very worried about themselves and their families and this is another concern and I suppose what I have to say, Minister, people don't mind paying if they get something in return and it's very unfair in that regard, this property tax that in rural areas, farmers and many others who are living, in rural areas, get very little for the property tax in return. You see, most people, just to give you an example of the local improvement scheme list in Kerry, there's 697 on the list starting out this year. We've only got enough funding for seven roads. Yes, I have Deputy Brendan Griffin saying that we got a 5% increase but we actually didn't do, we won't be doing as many roads as we did last year. We got just enough for 10 roads last year and seven roads this year. And I have to say to Minister, people in rural Ireland, they do deserve a good road to their door, just as much as the people in Dublin for. I have consistently said that, but that's not happening. The scheme was suspended for six or seven years and then there was a new lease looked for and the people that were still waiting since 2008, they're still waiting, Minister, and it's not fair. And these are not private roads. The criteria for applying for the local improvement scheme is you have to have two or more landholders. It's not to one private house. So, in many of these roads, there's 20 or 30 houses and farmers and different people up and down the road and the roads are in a terrible state and not in the charter of the county council. So, that's just one thing that I need to get across and I think the officials in the Department of Finance need to realise that they're not private roads, they're actually public roads, public rights away. Group water schemes. Group water schemes. Water is an essential service. And in Kerry now, we have a serious problem where group water schemes are not going ahead because on top of paying, the residences along the road, are along the line, have to, when they're paying for the group scheme, maybe eight or ten thousand per house. Now Irish water are looking for two thousand on top of that. That's double charging and that's not acceptable. And, you know, it's just, and when you think of Dublin in cities, and I don't begrudge anyone anything, but, I mean, they have all the services and they have buses, you see, all these new buses passing three or four after each other and one or two and so in any bus. It's, we can't get that kind of a service in rural Kerry. So, then we have a scenario where a small bridge or a large culvert, we call it in many places, won't be replaced for twelve months or a year and a half because so many assessments, environmental assessments. And I know one particular bridge in Kilgarwin, God Bridge, the material that was built that bridge in 18, some 1880 or whatever, it was bought in a house and care. It's closed now for almost a year and a half. And, and, and to be allowed to go ahead, same in God Darragh and Hedford. There was a slip on the road from the Tappacombe to Bellinger. It took almost two years, years before to replace the people that had to go around. So, if things happened up here, or in the other cities, they would be repaired right away. I believe that this property tax will hit pensioners very hard. Especially when there's only one pensioner, maybe in a large house, and, and, and, like, they, they want to stay in the house, obviously, that they gave all their lives in. But they are suffering hard, and, and, and, and increasing the property tax is going to affect them because, when there's two together, maybe they can spread out and, and help each other to pay the bills. The, the, the bills would, one on their own, it's very hard. And, and when you think of the funeral grant has been abolished, and they worry about being able to pay for their funeral, and, and, and, and every, every extra cent is going to, to, to hurt them. Leo says that something has to be done for Dublin properties, for they have such a large value, and I say to you, Minister, I suppose the reason that the value of houses has gone up is because of, of scare, of scarcity. And, I believe that if he went back to the traditional house building where he gave locked authorities funding to buy a site, give them money to build the houses, that, that would be still cheaper than all the schemes that he had at the present. And, uh, rental accommodation scheme happen, all these things, and, uh, they, they, they, they, they're costing money, and he'll finish you up with nothing for them. You see, on top of the property tax, people in rural Ireland have to continue with the price of fuel, and that has gone up massively. It, uh, it, it hasn't gone on just, of people in rural Ireland because, uh, and the addition of the carbon tax on top of it, uh, it's very expensive now, and it looks like every day you, you, you, you're nearly afraid to look at the sign outside the pump because it's going up a couple of cents more. Where is it going to stop? I'm very worried about, uh, this inclusion of sheds and garages and up to an acre. I mean, this is going to hurt people in rural Ireland with farms. I mean, what's the necessity of that? It's just something like that I've been very opposed to the fair deal scheme where the farm is assessed as well as the house. I believe that's very wrong, and this is, this is wrong as well, Minister, including up to an acre. I mean, uh, this has been done, and, uh, and again I say it's not fair because people in, in urban areas, they don't have the acre, and, and so they don't have to pay it, but, uh, the farmer, it can be construed that an acre, it's actually a hectare, hectare, that's two and a half acres, that's a lot of land, and, and what value is going to be put on that? I'm very worried about that, that needs to be, uh, clarified. Then we have the, uh, the, the idea that, uh, that if the valuation given by the house owner is not going to be accepted, that the assumption of the revenue commissioners, the, the value that they put, that they assume the house should be valued at, is going to be, will come into paid in that, that, that, um, that, that can't, uh, that, that, that, that seems to me as, uh, as, uh, there could be a lot of, uh, room for, for, uh, uh, you know, increasing the, the, the, the, the value of the house, uh, maybe creating an unfair value because the revenue commissioner or whoever is, maybe from, uh, a Dublin or an urban area, and, like, if a house is inside in the middle of a farm, uh, it's like, it's just the place where the farmer lives, uh, and, and, like, it doesn't have the value because, uh, uh, the, the farmers around it, and, and, and, and it doesn't have the same value as, as, as, as, as a house in Dublin 4 or whatever. Uh, it, it can't be treated the very same as, as, as those. And, you see, um, I say to minister that, um, people can pay another cent. It, uh, and, and, and, and that's it. There's so many, uh, things to continue with. Whether it is, uh, the USC that was brought in for, as a temporary measure. Um, and, and, and, and the, the, the, the, the, the motor tax. All those things that people in rural Ireland have to continue with. And if we build a new house, we have to pay all these levies. Actually, a road levy. Uh, a levy to assist with walls. And, and, and a, and a cent may never be spent on the road up to, to the, to the young fellow's house that's building, when he's building a new house. The cost of an, an ESB connection, uh, is unreal, depending on the amount of poles or whatever. Broadband, uh, we don't have, we, we don't have that in many places. The people are trying to improvise and, and trying to pay people for, um, uh, to, to, to, to try to bring, to bring, to bring the broadband to them. Um, it's a, it's a different story in rural Ireland. And rural Ireland are not getting the services, uh, that, uh, the people in urban areas are getting. And, and, and that should be, uh, that should be recognized when, when, when, when, when all this is, is, is being decided. As for the, the billions, what we have in front of us is very big. But I'm very concerned for the people who will carry that I represent. Thank you. Thank you.