Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for coming in late. I am trying to attend three meetings at the same time, which is very difficult, needless to say.

I wanted to come in to support the positions taken by a number of my colleagues on the use of farmland in the future and the impact of capital taxation. There is also the fact that for people in the business, farm, shop or whatever it may be, they are working all of their working lives there and paying tax, and at the end of it, they have another tax imposed to punish them for doing whatever they did for their lifetime. That is a dangerous route to go. That will drive people away or to do nothing, as has been said, and leave property idle.

The other thing is that when people look at empty properties in the centre of towns, there is a certain amount of fear of realising the best use of the property on the basis that inheritance tax or other taxation would follow. There is also the fact that in the middle of towns and villages, with heavy traffic nowadays, it is not always possible for families with children to live in such proximity to a heavily trafficked roadway. That needs to be borne in mind when we are talking about this, when everybody seems to have the answer in terms of availability and is asking why this is not done. Incidentally, within a couple of hundred yards of where we are sitting this evening, there are a number of properties that have been vacant for a number of years, and they could be utilised for family purposes or otherwise.

My next point is that renting does not solve the problem and it merely holds the problem for the moment. The people who have a home of their own, whether it be a county council house or a first-time buyer's house, are out of the market and they are no longer competing with the other people who are looking for housing. I have spoken about this many times in the past. I believe the transition to letting as opposed to making houses available to buy was a bad one, and I predicted that many years ago.

I agree with the person who said we need food in the future, which we do. If we are not very careful, we will end up having a food shortage. We should remember the EU was first instituted due to a need to ensure food security. It is not an easy thing to do in the present climate and we need to be careful about what we are doing.

My last point is in regard to emissions and the need for dietary changes in the agrifood sector insofar as animals are concerned. A lot can be done in that way. To presume that we can alter the whole worldwide trend ourselves is not realistic but we should do our fair share to bring about a reduction that is comparable to our population to do our bit for the worldwide problem.