Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Taoiseach for his presentation. It was a good chance to go back over the budget and talk about priorities.

I thank him for the update and the focus on the various issues he brought to us today as well as the outline of the past couple of weeks in the role. I have a few initial comments on some of the issues he raised. He mentioned the Covid inquiry at the start and in your speech as well. I think it is fine, we can certainly have an inquiry and, as you set out, it is about getting the terms of reference right. This is about learning for the future and being able to put a plan in place for the future. I do not want us to be in here at committee meetings trying to catch somebody out or find somebody out. Having worked in various Departments, that is just going to foil any future plans and any initiative. Everybody worked to their best ability. We all had frustrations with different parts of it, everyone did, because we were following new rules for everybody. It has to be about learning and putting in place changes for the future, recommendations, a quick way of making decisions, process and a focus on that as opposed to trying to find someone to blame. I just hope we get the tone right around that or else it will be a wasted exercise. It is all very fine to look back a few years on and make comments on decisions that were made at the time. In terms of the tone, it would be important for that to come across in the terms of reference, that we all do our job here. I appreciate that everyone including the Opposition has a job to do. I am not trying to prevent any of that but it is just about achieving the best results. That is what needs to be done, in my view.

I welcome the announcement around housing this week, certainly in relation to the waivers. All of us are committed to housing, some in different ways, and that is fine. I do believe that anywhere we can help reduce the cost and speed up supply, that is what it is about. Certainly the waiving of development levies is part of that. I am conscious the Taoiseach said it is temporary and it is important that it is temporary, to drive activity, so those who have planning permissions put them to use. It will be really worthwhile. We can see the figures are well us this year and last because of that change along with all the others as well. The Taoiseach outlined all the different policies there and they are all helping the housing supply. We are often missing the conversation in this House that if we are to achieve the numbers of housing that we all want, which is up to 40,000 and beyond that when we can, it means everybody playing their part. It is not just the taxpayer and the Government setting aside more than €5 billion a year for housing. We need others to spend the guts of €10 billion on top of that. That is why we have to have a lot of initiatives to encourage all levels of supply. If we do not do that, we will not get the overall expenditure we need in this area. I welcome that.

I know there are parties here that want to eliminate the help-to-buy scheme and so on. The whole logic of that scheme was to put people in a position that they would be able to get a deposit to buy a house. That goes back to 2016 and 2017, when there was nobody really building starter homes. Building had started again but it was houses for €500,000 or €600,000 plus. It was the next house up. There was nobody delivering houses in the €250,000 to €350,000 bracket. Because the customer was not in a position to do that, was not in funds, the help-to-buy scheme enables people to put a deposit together to go in and buy a house. The knock-on effect is that others are building the house for them. If we take away all these schemes, it will hit supply. We can argue until the cows come home about whether it affects the overall cost. That is a separate argument. To me it is about getting the activity going, getting the houses built, get people building the houses and make sure people are in a position to buy them. I am glad the help to buy scheme has been extended. I know the Taoiseach has committed to going well beyond it in the years ahead, too. The other schemes also are all about enabling people to buy houses. There are a number of schemes that place many people in a position to buy a house today that they would not have been able to buy ten or 15 years ago. I have to dispute this argument that I constantly hear about home ownership. The statistics are not saying there is a massive reduction in home ownership in this country. Compared to Europe, we are probably going the opposite way. There has been a change in maybe 1% in home ownership in the past ten or 15 years, not 25% as the impression is given here. We are all about home ownership as well as giving people the choice and the option to rent from the State, maybe through a social home or an affordable housing scheme, or to rent privately. We know that the levels are too high but the only way we can address that is to come in with more supply. Eventually these rents will come down. In the meantime, the Taoiseach is talking about the supports for renters which are important too. Supply is the key. I am glad the figures are all going the right way. We need to keep a steady drive on that over the next couple of years and commit to some of these schemes for a long number of years. If we do not, it will affect supply. That is really important as well.

I do not want to go on for too long. I welcome the commitment to enterprise and jobs. We are in danger in this country, listening to various conversations, of taking where we are for granted in respect of job opportunities and job creation. It is really important that we protect the jobs we have today and grow new ones, support new companies with new ideas and innovations, new start-ups and all that. This goes back to the Taoiseach's previous brief in higher education and research. It is essential that we commit to that through all the various innovation and science strategies that are in place. I listen to commentary in here that is not pro-business or pro-jobs. That is a dangerous place to go. I am glad the Taoiseach is very firmly setting out that we are pro-jobs and pro-economy. We want to be able to maintain where we are today and grow it. We want jobs in the economy to be able to fund all the changes as well. It is important that we do not take it for granted that, as a small country, we are creating the jobs we are creating. There are so many people out there doing that, hundreds of thousands of small and large businesses, people working very hard. Our job as a Government and in here is to support that, enable it, make it easier and assist in difficult times as well. It is vital not to take them for granted. We can see how quick jobs can slip away if we do not constantly focus on that as well.

My last comment is on the commitment for people with disabilities of all ages. We will agree that this is an area where we want to do more and we all need to do more. I can see the money being set aside over the years to do it but we are not getting the impact we should be getting for those families. Day in, day out, all of us as Members are meeting these people and families who need extra assistance. It is very frustrating that there is funding in place, there are announcements, but the issue is the follow-through. When a Taoiseach takes responsibility and says this is a focus we are going to bring to this through the Department of the Taoiseach, that is when we get the real change that is needed here. I really welcome his commitment to that area. We will see some positive change. Having money is one issue but actually making it happen is another. It is about listening to the people who need it. I am looking forward to seeing great changes there and I am glad to hear the Taoiseach's remarks on that area today.