The Labour Party ‘plans’ to cut property tax by 15% is a further insult to Dublin homeowners. The Labour party supported the introduction of Fine Gaels’ unfair and anti-Dublin property tax. Labour conspired to conceal the full impact of the property tax by first introducing it as a six month charge. They encouraged homeowners in Dublin to pay the Local Property Tax by falsely promising them that 80% of their money would be spent on services in their local area. Labour then facilitated the raiding of the more than €100million Local Property Tax collected in Dublin to fund the super expensive, super quango Irish Water. Now they have the brass neck to try and fool the people of Dublin that they are on their side and if re-elected they will reduce the charge by 15%. The fact is a 15% reduction of the Local Property Tax in Dublin would be meaningless for homeowners in Dublin where property prices increased by 16% in 2013 and due to the Government’s failure to tackle the housing crises are set to continue to rise. This latest Labour “promise” highlights their desperation, dishonesty and disconnection from reality.

Japan
I was proud to represent the Oireachtas Committee for Enterprise, Tourism and employment on our recent delegation to Japan. For almost 70 years Ireland has enjoyed strong diplomatic relations with Japan. Ireland opened it’s first embassy in Tokyo in 1974 In 2025 Ireland renewed and strengthened its presence in Japan