Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There is no doubt that the last number of years have been tough and difficult for our society. Since taking office just over three years ago, the Government has worked to stabilise our economy, restore our businesses' international reputation and, more important, restore the public finances.

Due to the public's sacrifices great strides have been made in this regard. As we move now from the stability phase to the recovery and growth phase in our economy, our people who have sacrificed so much will now have to share in the country's recovery.

Yesterday's budget is a positive step in the right direction and this momentum must continue. We must restore hope, certainty and optimism for our people so that they can look forward with confidence to the next generation.

Within my special area of responsibility for Construction 2020, I welcome the delivery of one of the Government's key priorities - an ambitious housing programme. In the coming year, provision has been made for the delivery of 7,500 extra housing units. We will not hear the Opposition commending that, even though the Sinn Féin budget proposal makes an allowance for just over 6,000 homes. I commend the Minister and his team on exceeding that figure. I have worked assiduously with the Minister, Deputy Kelly, as well as with the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, and the Minister for Public Expenditure an Reform, Deputy Howlin, to deliver a capital project that will address the real housing challenges we face.

The construction sector has been under-performing for the last number of years. It is contributing just over 6% of GNP. An economist would say that in any normalised market the construction sector should contribute in excess of 12% of GNP. At one stage we were building unsustainable levels of housing when the property bubble existed. We were building 90,000 houses per annum and selling them to ourselves. When the crash came that output fell to just over 4,000 houses per annum. We can see now why the deficits exist and why the challenge is there.

We need to ramp up construction and get back to building 25,000 to 30,000 houses per year. The measure in yesterday's budget to address capital investment and stimulus around the country will help in that respect. It will have a direct impact on the creation of jobs in the construction sector, which has been hardest hit. The €453 million of capital investment equates conservatively to 4,500 to 5,000 new jobs. When the private sector kicks in with further capital investments yet to be announced, we will see the construction sector getting back to where it belongs.

I also welcome the budgetary measures concerning tax incentives for the extension of the home innovation scheme to include landlords and improve rental accommodation. Much existing housing stock and rental accommodation in our cities and large towns are sub-standard and in urgent need of investment. This measure will enhance that stock which can be turned around quite quickly to help us meet the housing challenge.

In addition, I welcome the provision of a DIRT rebate for first-time buyers. Provision is also being made for public private partnerships to deliver essential infrastructure. The Living City initiative, now being formalised with the approval of the EU Commission, will offer owner-occupiers in our large urban centres the opportunities to invest in homes of a certain age. This will regenerate and revitalise such areas bringing life back to city centres.

The removal of the windfall tax was a necessary measure. There was literally zero income from this tax, which has been acting as a barrier for the release of existing lands that are serviced and zoned in many areas of high demand.

I look forward to working in conjunction with the Minister, Deputy Kelly, and our colleagues in government to bring planning Bills before the Oireachtas that will reform the planning process. That will create a national planning framework, reviewing how planning legislation is implemented. It will also assist in restoring the construction sector, thus bringing it back to sustainable, normalised levels that will contribute to the economy.

I will finish by highlighting another black hole in the Sinn Féin budget proposals. In that party's proposals last year, it wished to maintain the 9% VAT rate for the tourism sector. It was a measure that Sinn Féin opposed when the Government originally introduced it. However, the Sinn Féin figures never made provision for the €340 million. This year they forgot to mention the 9% VAT rate anywhere in their budget submission, which means there is a further €340 million deficit in those proposals.

These parties are being populist in opposing good Government initiatives, yet their budgetary figures do not stack up. They are vacuous and have nothing to offer an economy in recovery.

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