Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party) | Oireachtas source

I will start with energy and solar power. Solar has taken off and we discussed the reasons for this. We also mentioned obstacles such as planning. From my perspective, the reason is the planning guidelines from 2006 and the draft guidelines of 2019. There are actually no proper guidelines for wind farms. There have been court cases in which three wind farms have been stopped and some 70 wind turbines are being decommissioned because of landslides. The health implications for people in the vicinity of wind farms were never taken into account.

We now see people going for solar and looking at it as a safer option. From a planning perspective, it seems that solar planning permissions are being granted a lot faster and there are fewer objections because people see there are fewer health implications. The reason wind is not taking off in this country is that health guidelines were not implemented in the planning process when people were looking for wind turbines. As regards offshore, the designated maritime area plans, or DMAPs, have been delayed for the past five years, when we could have been looking at offshore wind. Delaying that process goes back to the previous Government. It is now trying to speed it up because of the planning guidelines and the failure of those guidelines to allow for health implications, not only for people but also for wildlife and animals on grazing pastures. A pattern is now emerging. It looks like wind and profits came before health.

On inflation, we are talking about VAT, profit tax and PAYE. If we look at inflation versus wages, inflation means wages go up, as we know. When inflation goes up, wages go up to try to counteract it, and we are then talking about social welfare. The only thing that did not change is if a glass of water cost €1 five years ago, and today it costs €3, you are still only getting the same glass of water but it costs three times the price. The tax revenue from that €3 has now increased, even though the person getting that glass of water is paying three times the price he or she paid for the same product five years ago. With inflation going up, how can we counteract paying two or three times the price?

I am a building contractor. I have been 35 or 40 years in business. I have seen the price per square foot per house in the past five years go from €120 to €200. It is the same house. I have also looked at the tax regime on this. A price of €200 a square foot, plus VAT at 13.5%, gives an increase in tax revenue for the same house, which actually fuels inflation so people's wages have to rise. People are then under pressure. If we keep going on the current trajectory, and inflation and wages keep rising, the only person it will cost is the consumer. We are then talking about social welfare costs going up. The Government is the only one that gets extra revenue with inflation, and this is why governments love inflation, because there is more tax revenue. If we keep going on that trajectory, we are heading for recession because something has to give.

It was said that the population is going up and there is only a 4% unemployment rate, but we also have a problem with infrastructure. The guidelines for delivering infrastructure are now through a Government-funded body, which is not delivering infrastructure. It was asked how we can get more contractors in, which I have been saying, and developer-led infrastructure so it meets demand, can try to lower the pricing of housing in this country, and can allow the likes of Irish Water to take over after it is developed. The smaller contractor was talked about in the contributions. The reason smaller contractors cannot get on that in the first place is they have to show they have done a single project, of more than €2 million, to actually get on to do some of the infrastructure. This is even though the same contractors are doing this for the larger contractors, which are taking all the revenue out of it. The smaller contractors are doing all the work anyway but they cannot actually deliver because of the criteria to get on for the contracts in the first place.

What do the witnesses see happening to stabilise inflation, so that in five years' time we are not looking at this again and saying we are now paying five times the price for the same product and the Government is getting five times more revenue? I think 36% of a mortgage is tax-related for a person who is building his or her own house, when that person's wages and VAT, at both 13.5% and 23%, are taken into account. The working squeezed middle is being squeezed more and more. If we keep going on this trajectory, we are looking at a recession. How do we counteract it?