Michael Martin is misleading the people of Cork

I am extremely critical of Fianna Fail leader Michael Martin and his recent decision to circulate leaflets campaigning against the property tax in the Cork area. The leaflets exclaim that ‘now is not the time’ for a property tax to be introduced. I want to challenge Fianna Fail on the content of their campaign.

Michael Martin’s opposition to the tax is ironic. A property tax has long been required by the troika to raise funds to pay back Ireland’s debts.  This tax was on the cards before the government took over from the disastrous Fianna Fail establishment.

The Fianna Fail Government negotiated the first Memorandum of Understanding with the Troika back in 2010 at the peak of the crisis. That agreement outlined a commitment to introduce a property tax as part of next year’s Budget.

In this purely opportunistic leaflet, nowhere does Michael Martin offer a realistic alternative to raise the funds which would be accumulated by a property tax.

This proves once again that the Fianna Fail party are more concerned with political spin than the best interests of Ireland. The party are opposing everything in order to take advantage of the challenging economic climate.

This scare mongering is unhelpful and does not accurately reflect the government’s plans for a property tax. Michael Martin describes in the leaflet how the ‘market value approach’ to the property tax will be taken by the government.

This statement is inaccurate. No decision has been made yet on what form the property tax will take.The government has established an Expert Group to examine how a fair property tax would be implemented.

The Expert Group was asked to examine international best practice in making its recommendations and their report has now been submitted. However, the Government has not yet examined the Report but will do so in due course.

Michael Martin points to the ‘mortgage arrears crisis’ and ‘getting people back to work’ as more important than the property tax. In reality, this government is cleaning up the mess that Fianna Fail made while in government by balancing a number of priorities including both mortgage difficulties and unemployment.

I know the people of Cork are too intelligent to fall for these cynical tactics and I hope that they will look beyond the misleading information in this leaflet and see the facts as they are.