Fianna Fáil TD blasts Government colleagues for 'bulldozing' through legislation

John McGuinness has claimed the Government has regularly fast-tracked through legislation without proper scrutiny

Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness has criticised his own party for 'bypassing democracy'. File Photo: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie

The chair of the Oireachtas finance committee has hit out at his Government colleagues for "by-passing democracy" by "bulldozing" through legislation.

It comes as Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has pressed ahead with fast-tracking a controversial property tax bill through all stages of the Dáil next week ahead of the summer break.

Finance committee chair, John McGuinness, accused Mr Donohoe of setting a "dangerous precedent" by effectively leap-frogging proper scrutiny of the bill.

Mr McGuinness said pre-legislative scrutiny of the bill, which will result in tax hikes on 36% of homes when new valuations are conducted in November, has not been cut short by the minister.

"We had started pre-legislative scrutiny of it. We had agreed to write to three different organisations to get submissions from them so we could prepare a report on the bill. The minister indicated that that didn't fit his timescale.

The issue here is legislation is going through the Dáil on big-ticket items that don't get the scrutiny that they need. I would make the case that it should not happen at all, it can lead to bad outcomes in terms of legislation.

Mr McGuinness said there is a wider issue with many ministers now fast-tracking legislation through the Dáil, which prevents politicians from properly examining the laws, leading to a "butchering of the democratic system".

The Fianna Fáil TD added: "We are really annoyed at the fact that the Government, in general, is treating the Dáil so badly that we can't do our work as legislators properly."

He said the rushing through of multiple government bills this week and next amounts to a "brutal guillotining" of legislation.

Mr McGuinness said in the past bills were discussed and debated at parliamentary party meeting but this no longer is happening.

Sinn Féin whip Pádraig Mac Lochlainn also hit out at Mr Donohoe for refusing to allow the finance committee finish its work.

As well as reassessing the level of tax paid by homeowners, the legislation will grant additional powers to the Revenue Commissioners to gather the information on vacant homes.

With 250,000 vacant homes in the country, according to the CSO, the new powers will allow the State for the first time to locate these vacant homes and understand why they are not being used to house families at a time of a housing emergency.