Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We have published legislation in that regard.

It remains a legitimate aspiration for many young people and for many couples to buy and own their own homes. The steps the Government has taken, combined with the measures introduced by the Central Bank, has put home ownership beyond a whole generation of young people. The new Central Bank rules are particularly punitive for people who want to trade up. If we take the example of a couple living in an apartment, who now have children, and want to sell it and buy a home worth, say, €350,000, after selling their apartment and clearing their mortgage if they are lucky enough to have some equity, they will need to stump up €70,000 to buy a new home. For the vast majority of people in that situation, it simply is not an option. The Minister needs to address that.

After the Minister met the Construction Industry Federation, CIF, he made some soothing comments about the Central Bank having to review the rules but he has not asked the Central Bank to do so. It is not only an issue for young people in the major urban centres with a €220,000 threshold above which one must have a 20% deposit for the excess, it is also an issue for young families who now have no prospect whatsoever of ever being able to trade up. That is not acceptable and it needs to be dealt with along with the issue of housing supply.

The first-time buyer's saving scheme, or the deposit interest retention tax, DIRT, refund the Minister introduced last year, has not worked. I thought there would be some initiative in the budget today to reform that, to have a bold initiative similar to the Help To Buy initiative in the UK or similar to what Deputy Barry Cowen has proposed on behalf of our party to assist first-time buyers in that regard and to give them an opportunity to buy.

A two-tier recovery has taken root where growth is concentrated in fewer and fewer hands in smaller and smaller parts of the country. For swathes of rural Ireland, the word "recovery" is not worth the Government press release on which it is written. The steady erosion of services to rural Ireland is a chronicle of betrayal by this Government and the Taoiseach, more than anyone, should be aware of that. The basic services of security, health and finance are slipping away from day to day lives of hundreds of thousands of people. The record is undeniable. The blue light was permanently extinguished in 139 Garda stations. The national flag was lowered once and for all at four Army barracks in Clonmel, Mullingar, Cavan and Castlebar. The last letter was posted at 24 post offices. The noise of the local bus faded away in many towns as Bus Éireann services were cut by 100. The din of the till was silenced in 160 bank branches because of their closure. Clinic waiting rooms remains empty as rural general practitioner clinics are closing and positions go unfilled. The IDA cars go straight from the airport in Dublin, with 94% of jobs created in 2014 in Dublin and the greater commuter belt area and 54% of all IDA site visits in 2014 in the Dublin area. The divide is getting bigger and bigger and there is no Government strategy to deal with it. It did not even warrant a mention in today's budget speech.

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