Pádraic McCormack (Galway West, Fine Gael)

The Minister for Social and Family Affairs in unscripted remarks outlined disadvantages to the present scheme and potential improvements. I welcome the Minister speaking off the cuff because it gives us a real insight into his thinking. Often we do not know who writes the scripts and what the Minister thinks of them. We must wait until the transcript of the Minister's remarks is available to analyse them in detail.

The Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government spoke of the importance of tenant choice; I presume he meant those on rent supplement. They have no choice, with €400 million being spent on rent supplement and the local authority waiting lists up to seven years long. They must remain on the supplement because there is no other way out. They cannot afford to buy a house. I dealt with a mother of three who could not get a house after six years because someone with four children had been on the waiting list for seven years and she had to get the house. The woman with three children had no choice but to stay on the list.

This motion deals with the high cost of housing. The Government has constantly refused to accept its responsibility for the high cost of housing. It is directly responsible for adding taxes, levies and other charges, amounting to €108,000, to every new house. That is a heavy burden on the person trying to buy a new house but the Government is doing little to alleviate the situation and its policies are making matters worse. It abolished the first time-buyer's grant, increased VAT by 1% on building materials and imposed development charges, adding up to €15,000 to the price of a house. The average price of a house is €265,000, an increase of approximately €20,000 in one year. The Government bears much of the responsibility for this development with average house prices increasing by roughly €180,000 over the lifetime of this and the previous Administration, while the number of homeless people stands at 5,500.

The Government toyed with the idea of reducing stamp duty for first-time buyers in the previous budget when it decided to exempt secondhand houses valued at less than €317,500 from stamp duty. Given that virtually every house sale in Dublin achieves more than this figure, few first-time buyers of second-hand houses qualify for the exemption. It is Fine Gael Party policy to abolish stamp duty on secondhand houses sold for less than €400,000.

The Government has taxed housing out of the reach of first-time buyers and young couples. When development charges, levies and taxes are combined, a major proportion of the price of a house accrues directly to the Government. We must address this issue. Abolishing such charges would reduce the cost of housing to young couples.

Every public representative is aware of the red tape involved in applying for disabled person's and other grants. I take issue with the attitude of local councils to applicants. Some applicants for disabled person's grant have passed away while waiting for their application for funding for a downstairs bathroom or shower to be processed. I have dealt with several such cases. The reasons given for the delay include the lack of money and red tape. At the end of 2005, for example, my local council indicated that funding was not available for essential repairs in the homes of elderly people, yet the country is awash with money.

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