Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

It is welcome but it is coming too late, after stamp duty revenue and sales have halved in the past nine months and confidence is at a low ebb. It does not represent a proper housing policy and we must examine the detail of a dysfunctional housing policy over which the Minister and his colleagues preside.

I welcome the increase in mortgage relief, a concession of €800 in cash terms. It will go some of the way to meet the €3,000 extra that young families have faced in the past 12 months as a result of increases in interest rates. It will be a welcome assistance.

However, I part company with the Minister on the matter of rental relief. Why has he decided that those who rent should get only €1.50 extra in rent relief? These are among the poorest families, who cannot get on the housing ladder, are in a weak position and cannot get loans from mortgage companies. They are not given anything. The total of the subsidy they will receive from the Minister is less than €15 per week. Rents in Dublin are €500 per week, as the Minister knows. What sort of contribution is this towards those in the weakest position? Rents have increased by 20% in most cities over the past 12 months and the Minister can only come up with €1.50 per week extra in rent relief. The Minister is out of touch with what is happening in the housing market. Other schemes are similarly out of touch. Regarding the rental accommodation scheme, why must low income families wait 18 months, being unemployed, before they can qualify for support from the public sector? What is the sense in that and what sort of poverty trap is it creating? That is the big idea from the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to address the housing crisis.

What is the situation in respect of the shared ownership scheme? The subvention element in the shared ownership scheme only applies if one's income is less than €28,000 but no one in the country would be considered for a housing loan with an income under €28,000. The shared ownership scheme is a dead letter scheme and is collapsing as we speak. It has ceased to support families who need our support in a difficult time.

I give the Minister one cheer for some reform of stamp duty but I do not endorse his housing strategy that is failing so many people. Even the Central Bank, hardly the source of radical thinking, tells us that half the people in the country cannot afford to buy a house and that this is unsustainable. The tragedy is that the bill for high cost Government has come home to roost, not just for taxpayers but for those trying to compete in the real economy.

The Government and its policies accounted for half of all inflation during the past seven years. In addition, it loaded stealth taxes equivalent to €3,500 per annum onto every family. Inflation in sectors controlled by the Government is running at two and a half times the rate that obtains in equivalent sectors in other eurozone countries. Ireland has become a high-cost country primarily as a result of Government action. I will provide one statistic which, more than any other, illustrates this fact. Price increases in sectors controlled by Government during the past seven years stand at 45%. Manufacturing companies trying to export goods abroad — the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Martin, will be aware of this — have seen their prices fall by 17%. That is the contrast.

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