Mattie McGrath attacks property tax extension on rural homes
Mattie McGrath spoke about proposed changes to property tax, opposing extensions of charges to outbuildings and the cartilage and calling the measures regressive and unfair to rural dwellers. He criticised rising building costs linked to climate legislation and blasted past septic-tank charges and grant schemes as ineffective.
Main objection to property tax extension
McGrath argued the proposed extension of property tax to outbuildings and the cartilage is a regressive measure that penalises rural households who lack urban services. He said rural owners must install and maintain their own waste and water systems and should not be treated as if they are responsible for wider pollution problems.
Septic tank charge and grant scheme criticism
He recalled a former minister's septic tank charge and said it demonised rural dwellers as pollutants. He described subsequent reductions to a 50 euro charge and grant offers as a "con job," saying many people – including in Tipperary – did not receive promised supports and that local authority systems, not householders, are often the bigger pollution problem.
Building costs and climate legislation impact
McGrath warned that the Climate Action Bill and other recent legislation are driving up the costs of building houses by increasing material and compliance costs. He referenced an official figure quoted by the Minister for affordable houses and said building in Dublin has become effectively impossible for many people.
Practical rural concerns on outbuildings, security and planning
He listed common rural outbuildings - pump houses, utility rooms and garages - and said householders often need these for storage and security because of theft. He also highlighted heavy planning costs, engineering reports, wastewater treatment plans and occasional requirements for environmental impact statements or archaeological investigations when seeking planning permission.
Call for proper debate and criticism of public waste
McGrath called for a meaningful, proper debate on the measures and criticised what he described as waste across departments. He urged evaluation of the proposals rather than what he called piling on of charges that disadvantage "plain people" in rural Ireland.
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I'm supporting this amendment and we've moved it already. Look, it's property tax that came in with all kinds of promises and everything else and all kinds of issues. And there has been issues and debates ongoing about the amount of property tax that people are paying in Dublin, the value of the property and it going to rural roads. But the fact of the matter is it's not going anywhere. The amount of waste that's going on in all departments is just going on. It's just shocking. And, you know, fair play is fine play with me any day of the week. And like for people to build a house now in Dublin, it is impossible. We were talking about affordable houses that the Minister says 440,000 or something. It's crazy. So we're going to have to look at this and evaluate it and have a proper meaningful debate. And most of the legislation that we've passed, even this evening, again, the Climate Action Bill, that's driving up the costs of building houses. Driving up the cost of it because they're all, all the materials for building. Many morale based and timber based, you won't ever cut the timber or whatever. But to go back to the amendment, this is totally another regressive step and another news around the mix of the country people. And it's just not good enough. And it's just not good enough. We've tried it here. I don't know what Fine Gael I have against them. Former Minister Phil Hogan brought in the septic tank charge. He tried to demonise and portray rural dwellers as being pollutants of the ground. And the septic tank at the waste disposal system will be in the site. You need a minimum of £1.6 to an acre to build a house now with a septic tank. But there will be septic in the cartilage inside the two and a half acres or so. You know, the property tax in Dublin, you have your services. You have your, unlike England, you pay for the refs, I know, but you have services. But you have no services whatsoever in rural land. You have to put in your own system. And I'm talking about an existing house. Put in your own system and maintain it. And by hell, do they maintain it? Because the last person in the country that wants to have a not working properly sewer system is the householder and the family. And that horrible charge that was trying to be put on and assess them. And then they announced, I called it a Friday Fiverr, the scheme. They announced a 50 euro. The charge will come down to 50 euro. And they said we get a grant. Again, like Deputy Healy Ray said about the money for the LIS schemes, there was nothing to support the grants. I don't know any person in Tipperary that got the grant. We did about, I think about eight or ten or maybe 12 inspections a year. And it was just a total hijack and another con job that trying to portray the rural people as being dirty. When, in fact, the main problem has been proven up and down the country. And if the EPA wanted to see it, or on Tashka, they're on tonight again asking the Minister not to accept amendments. If they wanted to see it, the weed pollutants are the local authorities. In every town, well not every town and village, but the vast majority of towns and villages, because their systems are antiquated, not functioning properly, and not fit for purpose. And not the rural dwellers, because I said they look after their own. So, to bring this tax now, to extend it to the cartilage and to outbuildings. Outbuildings, if I could go through them, many of these houses may have been converted from detached house, and they may have been covered with corrugated iron, and they may have, you know, have to have a well close by, and that's a pump house, and some of them got grants to upgrade the water well. Not many, but a few did, that I know of. There was a grant scheme, if you hadn't, if a man's didn't pass the house, and you had a well, you got a grant to upgrade it. And rightly so. And why shouldn't they? So, there may be, you know, utility rooms. There may be a garage for your care. And like it or not now, you cannot leave property, any kind of property, outside. From the lawnmower, you know, to any utensils, you can't leave outside, because there's roaming gangs, and they use the motorways, I won't attribute it to where they come from anywhere, but they have great access to the country, and they plunder, and steal, and rob, so you have to have everything secure. And if you happen to secure a house, and now you're going to penalise for them, what are you trying to, what kind of a, what kind of a vendetta have you given to the people of rural Ireland? The plain people who build their houses, house themselves, pay their taxes, and pay rates, pay everything. And now you won't let them drive, you can't get a theory test. You penalise them as a gas, they'll play drivers, and now you're hitting them with all kinds of carbon taxes again. And as others said, no public services. So why make this attack on dwellers? They're the plain people of Ireland, good people, proud people. They didn't ask to be housed by any local authority, or by any government. They did it themselves. Many of them got county council loans, like myself did, when I built the house back in 83 or 84. And, thank you, they're glad to get it. And many of them are still paying markets to have their houses. And their noble aspiration is to have a decent house for the family themselves. And if they have two and a half acres, they'll be hoping to get a site for some of their family. And when they go for the planning there, they have massive planning fees. You have to get engineer's reports, you have to get wastewater treatment plans. And lo and behold, if Antarctica here, you're at it, they want to get you an environmental impact statement. They'll want you to get an archaeological dig. It's a victimisation. And I won't use the word I used earlier, but it is definitely a segregation and mistreatment of rural dwellers. Totally unacceptable in this day and age. And it's piled on one after the other. One after the other. The family, he won't be, he can't spread the slurry, he can't spread the knowledge, you know, whatever else. He has to have all the rules and regulations. And yet, when you go into the towns, many of the towns, and I could name them off, torture them in my own south of the county who have inadequate treatment situations and raw sewers belching into our rivers and lakes and seas. And here we are, crucify and penalise and victimise and stigmatise the people of rural islands. It's a shocking indictment, Minister. And I don't know who comes up with these ideas, who drafts this legislation, and who comes up with, I don't want to be blaming the drafters of the public officials, but we must have fair play. As I said, fair play is fine play with me, but not this kind of a relentless attack and undermining of the good people of rural Ireland. The good people of rural Ireland, they don't ask for a house, don't ask for free water, don't ask for anything. But leave them alone, get off our backs. And get the monkey of untashed off our backs, and get the monkey of the pay off our backs, and go and look after what they should be looking after. Can I redirect you to the amendment? This is the amendment, exactly. And the amendment is, by the rule of independence, that we're being unfairly portrayed as, you know, as, I don't know what, but trying to extract more money out of them. You can't get blood out of a stone. I mean, they're stroking to the pin of the collar to live and pay their way and to be left alone. We can't have a couple of million paid for fancy full buses that are driven and driven on hydrogen and a combination of batteries and everything else. And the people today running into them to see them, what kind of seats they are. So a seat on a bus is a seat on a bus. And he wants a safety and safety belts like any bus. And no talk of how they're going to run. I hope there'll be a pushboard in the back of it when the bus stops, for lack of charge or hydrogen, that the passengers can push it out of the way if it stops in the middle of the street somewhere and blocks the traffic. But the hell out of the connoct is the mantra of this government for the people of rural Ireland. Never change since Cromwell's time. So I say to you now, go back and take this legislation discussing it in the middle of the night like the people they buy, and forcing it through here under guillotine. It's scandalous. But the people of rural Ireland have had enough. With people outside tonight protesting about what's been done to them all over the country, both open and rural. But this relentless, consistent attack on rural Ireland must be outed and stopped because we're not asking for anything until we're left alone. We live in peace. We comply with all the regulation. Peaceful support and garrison economy and all the other functions. We have enough's enough, and we're not going to accept any more. You're going to have civil unrest if you keep at this crack. Is that what you want? I don't know whose message you're serving. This is Europe, and the Lisbon Treaty, and we voted twice, but we didn't accept the people's vote the first time. And a bigger agent here, a canvass of both of them. But I found out from my mistakes. But this is an outrageous attack on the people of rural Ireland. And it's dividing and segregating communities, urban versus rural. And it's not a good thing for society or for social life or anything else going on. But we're a small island. We should be able to live together, and it would modicum a fair play. Thank you.
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