Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests very much for being here today. I promise I will try to be as brief as possible. People of a differing opinion when it comes to issues like taxation know that when I speak against their viewpoint, it is the same as it is in life in general. If we were all the same it would be very boring. Everybody knows my feelings on Deputy Durkan. I hold him in nothing but the highest of esteem and 99% of the time I think he is actually right. It is frightening sometimes how right he is. He is right about frightening off people with wealth and people who want to create wealth. I hate naming people so I am not going to say who but I often hear other Members say it is no harm to tax people with multiple properties, as if they are doing something wrong. There is a very important place for people who are at that type of business. I will give an example. I am going to tell a true story about this morning. In telling this story the committee will realise the type of people they are. Before 6 o'clock this morning I had a very lengthy conversation with a person who creates a lot of employment. He is in County Kerry. Directly and indirectly, 500 or 600 people get paid from his office every week. He is a serious player in County Kerry in the provision of housing, in the provision of product and in doing work on the ground. He is a young enough person. He was talking to me about housing and he said that even the voluntary housing agencies will tell us that right now is not really the big worry. The big worry is next year because there are no plans being put in place at present for developments for next year. I am talking about public housing. I am talking about the provision of public housing through either local authorities or voluntary housing agencies. On Monday I met with our local authority. I have a briefing here for Oireachtas Members and there is a housing section in it. I have studied very carefully what our local authorities are doing. To be honest, we are doing our best. Our housing authority in Kerry, as far as I am concerned, is better than anywhere else but it will not be anywhere near being able to make inroads into the housing needs we have in County Kerry.

Then we have to look at the private side of it. Is anybody seriously trying to tell me that any developer is going to come along now and buy a field, get planning permission, build houses on it with the cost of the material, and then rely on people being able to get access to the money to buy them? In the meantime those developers will be paying a land tax and will be crippled with tax on what they do. Every type of thing in the world will be thrown at them. There will be people up in the Dáil talking about the developers making money as if they are doing something wrong. They will say nothing about the work they will create or the housing they will create. The funny thing about it is that it is not going to be a problem. People in the Dáil will not have to be jumping up and down about the developers because the developers will not exist. They will not exist because they will have been hunted out of it. There is this perception that if a person is doing something like that, they are a criminal. We hear nothing about the fact that they may be paying tax at 56%, nothing about the fact that they are creating employment and places for people to live.

All of those people are giving us politicians an answer now because they are leaving what they were doing. People who were in the private rental sector are giving it up. They are walking away from it and they are not going to have anything to do with it. Can anyone actually envisage anyone in Ireland today buying a new apartment or a new house and deciding to rent it out? Not in a million years. Why is that? It is because the Government has hunted them out of it. These people have had people jumping up and down inside in the Dáil ridiculing them and talking as though there is something wrong with them. The people in the Dáil might have good intentions buy, my goodness, it is having the exact opposite effect. I know some of the people who spoke here this evening and some of the people in other parties in the Dáil. They are nothing but genuine and well-intentioned but I ask them to please look at what they are doing. It is turning people off. There are people who own property who are saying the sooner they can get out and sell their place, the better because they do not want to be stuck in this racket any more. What good is that going to do? The State is not going to be able to provide the housing.

I am sorry - is the Chair going to stall the meeting now because of the vote in Dáil?