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

I am thankful to have the opportunity. I congratulate the Minister, Deputy Chambers, on his new appointment and wish him well. It is a big task. I wish him well with the Ministry and, indeed, continued success to the Minister, Deputy Donohoe. They are the two Ministers charged with the finances of our country, how our taxes are spent and how our social welfare benefits are paid out. To that end, housing is one of the biggest issues facing the country.

I wish to put something to the Ministers that I have raised numerous times in the Dáil Chamber. This is the fact that there are so many vacant houses in the country. To give one example, from the top of the town of Kenmare, along the main road out to Kilgarvan, through the town and down to within 10 miles of Killarney, I counted 55 houses vacant along the road. There are two main reasons those houses are not being let. The first is that people are so afraid now that if they do let people into their houses, they will not be able to get them out again. This is the number one reason. The other reason is that in this kind of scenario, the most rent anyone could hope to get for these houses, although the situation is different in the towns of Killarney, Kenmare and Dingle, is €700, €800 or €900 a month. It is not worth people's while doing that because many of them have other incomes and they would finish up paying half the income they would get from rent, up to 52%, in tax. Right away, they would be down maybe around €400 in terms of what they might finish up with. The liability that they may not be able to get back their houses is the other obstacle, as I said. The Government has devised a scheme in the last couple of years where people who own houses and rent them to Ukrainians can earn up to €800 tax-free. Would it not make sense to extend that exemption to people owning houses who would rent them to our own people?

The Government is getting very little out of these houses anyway in terms of property tax or whatever. It will be said to me that the Government will lose so much tax if people are exempted. Would the Government not be achieving two things, though, if it did take this approach? It would lower the pressure on local authorities to provide houses. I see great merit in this. I will give an example of a road, and it passes my own door, that goes on for about 17 miles. It is not necessary to go off the road at all to access these houses. Buses are now passing each other going both ways on the road from Kenmare to Killarney. If people do not have cars or whatever, there are schools along the way. There is Kilgarvan, Glenflesk and Knockanes and so many places like these.

The story is different if you go in around Killarney town - you cannot get houses at all because they are not there. If you could, they would cost anything from €1,200 to €1,500 a month. Someone has even been asked for €2,000. This man who came to me last night, who has four children, is supposed to have been out of where he is living before now but he cannot find a house. He was asked by one person for rent of €2,000. I ask the Ministers to consider this proposition. I would like to know what they think of it.