Homeowners who pay management fees 'paying twice for services'
Fianna Fáil has said that people paying management fees should get a discount on their local property tax - because they are paying twice for services like grass cutting, lights and road maintenance.
The party is to put legislation before the Dáil that would offer tax relief on a third of the management fee, up to a maximum of €300 a year.
The proposal would cost up to €15m for up to 177,000 owner-occupiers.
Senator Darragh O'Brien says it would be welcome relief to many, and that the coalition can afford it.
"A lot of people, their management fees equate to nearly an extra month's mortgage," he said.
"I know people in two-bedroom apartments paying up to 16, 17-hundred euro per annum, and this [Bill] is some way of actually acknowledging that that is a real problem, and fundamentally that that is unfair.
"We included that in our submission to Government in relation to the review of the local property tax that we actually believe that the LPT for these people, and for these families here, should be reduced."
