Green Party’s Garden Tax an attack on rural and suburban Ireland– Heydon

The Green Party’s Garden Tax proposal is an attack on rural and suburban Ireland, a Fine Gael Deputy has said.

Martin Heydon, a Fine Gael General Election candidate in Kildare South, has warned the Green’s blitz on gardens would wreak havoc with Local Property Tax calculations around the country.

Deputy Heydon said: “In the Green Party’s manifesto, the Site Value Tax, or Garden Tax, outlines how the value of a property does not matter, just the value of the site is taken into account.

“It is deeply unfair and is targeting people – not because their property is very valuable – but because they happen to have a garden.

“You could have a huge mansion with a swimming pool paying the same rate of property tax as the neighbouring three-bed, just because they have the same size site.

“You could also have penthouse apartment owners paying next to no property tax, because their portion of the site is quite small and obviously they don’t have a garden.

“Meanwhile, those in suburban and rural Ireland would be paying massive amounts due to the fact that they happen to have a garden.

“The Green Party have failed to set out in detail how their Garden Tax will work in practice.

“It might work in economic theory, but people need to know how it will impact them.”

ENDS