Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

This is not the way to go about regenerating an economy that is being destroyed by the Government's austerity policy. Shortly after I entered the Dáil in 1997 a series of measures was begun by Fianna Fáil to cut taxes for property speculators and developers which led to the catastrophic property bubble which led to the blackmail prices young people were charged for the right to have a roof over their heads. It is highly ironic that a Labour Party Minister stood up to propose this measure considering that each year when in opposition his colleague, Deputy Joan Burton, religiously engaged in a rant against section 23 and other such scams.

We will have an economy in which buildings and homes can be bought and sold for realistic prices when the savage austerity measures and the pouring of billions into bad banks to save the European speculative system are stopped and people are at work. That is how we will go about it, not by this type of artificial measure.

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