Taoiseach denies Cabinet rift on property tax

Taoiseach Enda Kenny denied in the Dáil yesterday that the Cabinet was split on the property tax.

He insisted there was no basis for the “division’’ among Ministers, as claimed by Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin. He added that the tax was an alternative to increased income taxes and the details involved were still being worked out by the Government.

“The law says that the elected representatives of the people, whatever the shade of opinion on the council, are entitled to reduce the property charges by 15 per cent if they so wish,’’ he added. “It is a matter for themselves to make that decision.’’

Mr Kenny said the Government had already decided that 80 per cent of the charges collected would be kept in each local authority area.

Mr Martin said media reports had said there was a significant split in the Cabinet on the issue, with Fine Gael wanting to charge local authorities more. Services devolved from central government would have to be paid for, he added.

Uniform system

He said the “the honest and simple way out this mess’’ was to agree at national level that the property tax should be reduced by 15 per cent to provide for a uniform system across the country, without impaling or damaging the capacity of cash-starved local authorities to fund existing services.

Mr Kenny said he was interested to see Mr Martin’s new-found interest in a property tax, which he did not want, despite having a proposal in the past to make it heavier than was currently the case.

He was sorry, he added, to see Mr Martin acting on “the absolute gospel belief of what you read in the papers’’.

He said the introduction of a property charge was part of the process of developing a system that was as fair and equitable as possible for people to contribute to the provision of services and the running of the country.

“The ESRI pointed out that the local property tax is six times more jobs friendly on labour than increases in income tax,’’ Mr Kenny added.

Mr Martin accused the Taoiseach of “living in a land of unreality’’, because councils were currently being starved of funding and were shafted by the Government last year.

Gave them nothing

The Government, he said, had promised to give them 80 per cent of the funding this year, but it gave them nothing. In advance of the local elections, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore had said the charge would be cut by 15 per cent, having doubled it a month earlier.

Mr Kenny said no council would be worse off, given that 80 per cent of what was collected would be retained.

Earlier, Mr Martin asked the Taoiseach to confirm that Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn had resigned from the Cabinet. He said he thought the Taoiseach would be obliged to inform the House if he had received a ministerial resignation.

Ceann Comhairle Seán Barrett intervened to say Mr Martin could not interrupt the business of the House to ask such a question.

Mr Kenny said Mr Quinn, who at the time was announcing his resignation to journalists at press briefing on the Dáil plinth, should be given the courtesy to make a statement. Mr Martin said the primacy of parliament was important.

Mr Kenny said he was interested in Mr Martin’s remark about the primacy of parliament. “He certainly abdicated his responsibility in that regard on a number of occasions over the years,’’ he added.