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

I am going to be brief because I have been called into a Dáil debate where I have speaking time.

I thank our witnesses very much for being here today. I believe it is important. I have been listening intently to what they have been saying. I wish to come at this subject from two perspectives. First, and most importantly, as a politician who holds approximately 50 clinics monthly, I would like to think, like everybody else, that I am very much in touch with the needs of the constituents of County Kerry whom I am here to represent.

One thing that has been happening is that we have people who are newly financially pressed. I refer to situations where both parents are working. They have two incomes, but they are paying between 50% and 60% in tax on those incomes. They are also paying a mortgage, repayments on loans for two cars and paying for education, including maybe college. These people are being hit for everything. On the one hand, I very much welcome the increase being given to employees. On the other hand, what drives me mad is when I hear the Government saying it is giving money to employees. It is not. It is not doing any such thing. It has, instead, told the employers that they must pay for this increase. As a small employer and a person who pays a not inconsiderable number of people wages weekly, in several different fields, and I have been doing so for many decades now, I can see that it has become increasingly difficult to run a business now more than ever before. The bottom line seems to be less and less. With the high costs of energy, paying a week's wage to people, running a show, paying for insurance and everything else, it is just very expensive.

I would like to try to come at this matter from several perspectives. Talking about this whole aspect of the cost of paying wages, Friday comes around very quickly. Regarding the supports given to small businesses, I am not a knocker of government, no such thing. I would be the first person to say that if it had not been for the measures taken by the current Government during the pandemic, I and many other small business people throughout this country would have closed up and the jobs we have and are creating would have gone and been lost for ever. This has left us in a position, however, where we are really worse off now than we have been at any time in the last 30 years in respect of trying to keep a business going.

The other scenario is the payments being made to people. Let us take as an example the energy supports. When I see people in the Government saying it is doing so much in giving people a once-off payment, this once-off payment pales into insignificance when we see the high bills people are receiving in their houses every week. It is frightening. This is one aspect.

Of course, there are things that are welcome, including the measure concerning cost of schoolbooks and third-level fees. Again, however, we have people slipping between the cracks. These are people who are working and who, from the outside, might appear to be well-off. Their disposable income, the amount of income they really have, to pay their bills weekly is becoming less and less. I would call these people a new poor in society. From the outside, they look fine. My God, though, it would be a different story if we knew what was going on inside their heads. I know all the witnesses do know this. People of whom we would not think it are actually in this position.

I wish to talk briefly about housing. I will be brief. The Cathaoirleach knows I always declare an interest in this sector of society as well. I do not want anybody to think I am coming at this topic just because of what I do myself. I am coming at this matter because I like to think that I know a share about it. I refer to housing, its supply, the costs involved and the rents being paid. I have heard people in the Opposition say this has been a budget that has favoured landlords. Just for everybody's information, it must be 100 years ago now since we got rid of the landlords. There is no such thing as a landlord in Ireland today. There are people who own property and their business is renting it out to other people. This then is what they are: they are property owners who are in the business of renting out property. Whether this is commercial or private, residential or whatever type of property, this is what they are.

These are the property owners who are now supposed to be getting what we will call a tax break from the Government. This is the biggest load of nonsense that has ever happened. I say this because when we are talking about supply, people who own property were waiting to see what type of measures would be in this budget. We thought a measure of this type might have come last year. Up and down the length of the country, many people held on because they thought the Government was waking up to this issue. I ask everyone to please never forget that if a person receives €1,000 in rent, the Minister for Finance gets €560 of that amount. The person who owns the property gets €440 of that €1,000 to pay his or her obligations to the bank, to pay the insurance on the property and to pay for the upkeep of the property. That money received is also required to cover situations when the rent is not paid at all and it is necessary to try to make the property wash its face without getting in any money whatsoever, and it might be necessary to do this for a year or two while supplying a property when it is not being paid for.

These property owners were holding on in the hope that the Government would wake up to what was happening and bring in a measure to apply a 20% tax take across the board on people supplying accommodation. This did not happen, though, and what came was actually nothing. It is of no help whatsoever. What was done has tipped the scales. The people who had been waiting have now realised that the best hope they had was whatever might have come out of this budget. It did not transpire as hoped, so they are now leaving the sector in their droves. I hear people saying this is not the case and that, instead, it might be because a second house, or whatever, was intended as a pension. No, these people, whether they are accidental property owners or people who got into the sector over the years, people who were working hard and took on a second or third mortgage, or whatever they are doing, have now realised that no political assistance or support is going to come to them. They are now saying to themselves, "Fine, we will get out of it". This means the supply will diminish. Of course, then, when the supply is reduced, the rents will be higher. If there was a plentiful supply of property, the rents would not be as high. The reason rents are going up is because of the reduced supply.

Then there is the cost of doing any building. If anyone here decided tomorrow morning to put an extension onto their house, they would get a bad fright because of the prices of steel, concrete and labour, including electricians, etc. The cost of building has gone through the roof and is astronomical. I would rather be building something in New York tomorrow rather than trying to do so here in Ireland. I believe it would be cheaper to build something in the middle of Manhattan than to build something in Ireland today.

The first obstacle we have is that of planning. It seems like there would be a better chance of winning the lottery than of getting planning permission, or of getting it easily anyway, because of the way the system is all in favour of the objectors' point of view. Just in case our witnesses do not know this, if they were ever to be looking for people to object to the awarding of planning permission, they should come to the Dáil and I will introduce the witnesses to them. The majority of them are spokespersons for political parties. They object to planning permission for thousands of homes in their own constituencies. To our credit here in Dáil Éireann, we have individuals who, on their own, over several years, and I have one person in mind when I say this, have lodged 5,000 objections to houses being built in that person's constituency. We have a spokesperson on housing who has lodged 2,850 objections to housing being built in his constituency.

Tell me then how hard it is to do business in Ireland. Let us think of the irony here. We have people jumping up and down here in Dáil Éireann saying they want housing and then when people come along and want to provide it, they object to the building of that housing.

That includes student accommodation, private residential and any type of development, indeed anything that is going into the ground and being built up. They are objecting to it wholesale.

These are some of the things that are bothering me. I am sorry if I am like a broken record. I thank the witnesses for coming and would appreciate any response from them either individually or collectively in the time we have.