Fianna Fáil’s Brainchild and Legacy – The Family Home Tax

Speaking in the Dáil this week after householders around the country recieved their new tax demands in the post, Dublin South West representative Seán Crowe TD said that the Family Home Tax was a brainchild and part of Fianna Fáil’s legacy. The local Deputy also criticised the Tax which he said failed to make any allowances for people who simply can’t afford to pay and condemned the deeply unfair terms of the tax for those seeking deferrals or living in ghost estates.

Deputy Seán Crowe said:

“The Family Home Tax is grossly unfair, is regressive, a brain child and a direct legacy of Fianna Fáil. 

“Over the last week citizens from Dublin South West and right across this state have been receiving letters from Revenue in relation to the Government’s Family Home Tax. This is a tax which takes no account of a persons ability to pay. It disregards those in negative equity, those in mortgage arrears and the tens of thousands more who have paid huge sums in stamp duty.

“Following the Department of the Environment’s publication of the exemptions list this morning we have another example of just how unfair this tax is. Of the 1,770 unfinished ghost estates, only 421 will be exempt from the new tax.

“This is stark contrast to the 1,322 estates with 43,000 households who were exempt under the household charge waiver list.

“Media reports also indicate that a resident of Priory Hall, an estate officially classified as unsafe, and unfit for human habitation, has been landed with a property tax bill. So the big question is why are those living in ghost estates that were exempt from the household charge now being hit with this new family home tax?

“How can anyone defend the burden of this tax on families who are struggling to make ends meet, struggling under the weight of negative equity and mortgage distress,many of them people who simply cannot pay?

“The bands for deferral under the family home tax are also a scandal.

“How can a Government Minister deem it reasonable for a single person on a salary of €16,000 to pay this tax, or a couple with children struggling on €30,000 a year?

“How can they believe that the deferral option which will apply interest to those who can’t pay, is in any way just or fair.

“Labour and Fine Gael’s dogged commitment to Fianna Fáil’s legacy Family Home Tax is yet another indication of just how out of touch this Government is.”

“They had and still  have choices.

“They could drop the Family Home Tax and as an alternative enact Sinn Féin’s more equitable Wealth Tax legislation introduced by Pearse Doherty TD only last year. That progressive tax would raise more revenue and directly target those who have the resources to pay.”