I draw the House's attention to comments made yesterday by four Dublin Labour Party Deputies, Deputies Kevin Humphreys, Robert Dowds, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin and Brendan Ryan, who tabled a Dáil motion on the local property tax. They stated, among other things, that councils in Dublin urban areas must not be placed at a disadvantage in terms of funding from the central Exchequer fund. This is a very disturbing development. Later it was reported that Deputy Ó Ríordáin said Dublin should not be ripped off. This is the same Deputy who had to apologise in April last year for accusing the people of Monaghan of having latent homophobia. A cabal of middle-class Labour Party Deputies, including Deputy Kevin Humphreys from Dublin 4 and Deputy Ó Ríordáin from leafy Clontarf-----

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I am asking for a debate on the property tax and I am explaining why. These people have injected an element of Dublin versus rural Ireland into the property tax issue, no doubt as a last-ditch effort to save their seats in the face of angry and betrayed constituents, and I find it disgusting. I call on the Deputy Leader to urgently seek a debate in the House on property tax with the Minister responsible for local government. It is Government policy to allow 80% of the tax to remain within the local authority area in which it is collected. While this will be good for Dublin councils, the property tax base in rural Ireland, in places such as in Roscommon, is narrower and there will be a requirement to equalise and support the funds going to these areas to ensure regional equality. I hope there is no rural phobia - I do not what the word is - among these middle-class Labour Party Deputies. We need a debate to ensure there is proper solidarity among the regions of the country.