THE LOCAL PROPERTY Tax Bill has passed its first vote in the Dáil with 79 votes to 44 and will go to a second reading.

After an electronic vote, Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó’Snodaigh called for a walk through vote with the final tally standing at 79 to 44.

Labour TD Colm Keaveney who yesterday voted against the government on a cut to the respite care grant in the Social Welfare Bill did not take part in the electronic vote.

Speaking before the vote, Independent TD Stephen Donnelly said “one in five mortgages is either in arrears or is being restructured and one in ten Irish children is now in food poverty”.

Donnelly said the government had promised before the election to help people caught in the mortgage trap.

“You’ve increased their child benefit, you’ve increased their income tax and you’ve caved into the banks in finding meaningful solutions to the mortgages”, he said. “And now to top it off, you’re actually going to tax them on the debt that has financially destroyed them.”

Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government said he was “pleased to report to the house that the Household Charge has been a success” with 70 per cent of liable owners have registered to pay for the charge.

Hogan said he wants to see a system where people will have access to funding at a local level in terms of the provision and authority of those democratically elected members of any particular local authority.

“The introduction of a local property tax is an advance towards our national economic recovery, it is an advance in giving people local discretion at a local level to provide services without having to seek permission from national government,” he said.

The bill will now go to its second reading when the Dáil reconvenes next week.