Ms Michelle Murphy:

I will respond to the question about housing and part of Deputy Boyd Barrett's last question. There is a huge long-term cost to HAP, and this is the challenge. If the private rented sector is relied on to provide social housing, there will be a significant long-term cost to the State. That is why we have argued and continue to argue that the social housing element of the housing crisis in which we find ourselves needs to be separated out from and addressed separately to the private rented sector. We made this argument in our presentation to the special Oireachtas committee on housing. Of the numbers for housing announced in the budget, the majority, 15,000, are to be delivered through HAP, so only 4,450 will actually be constructed. This is the real challenge. The building of a social housing unit is a one-off cost to the State, and the State then has an asset. If a cost-rental system is then introduced, the State can generate some income from the asset.

Second, to touch on the question regarding income taxes and tax cuts, the statistics show that those on middle incomes earn between €27,000 and €30,000 per annum, so any tax cuts for them will be very small. What should be done is investment in the social wage or, in other words, reducing their cost of living. This is done by investing in child care, public transport, health, education and so on because there is no way income tax can be reduced so much as to give middle income earning individuals enough money in their pockets to purchase all these services in the private market. Therefore, the cost of living needs to be reduced. In order to do so, there needs to be investment in the collective social wage, from which all of us benefit. Some of us contribute more than others, but we would never be able to afford all these services on our own.