Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I recognise that there is to be an increased level of capital expenditure over the next number of years. This will represent an increase from the lowest level in Europe, which is the baseline from which we are working. When one is at the lowest level in Europe, it is easier to get 60% or 70% increases because one is starting from a very low base. Nonetheless, there is an increase and it will ramp up as we get closer to 2020-21. The problem is that we have at this point in time serious crises, as everyone in this Chamber knows, which require capital investment. For individuals who are either on housing waiting lists or in emergency accommodation, 2020 or 2021 does not mean much to them; they need investment now. I would argue - and I make this point to the Minister in advance of the budget - that smoothing rules are available. For example, for every euro the Government cuts in taxes, it could increase capital investment this year by €4. For every €200 million the Government gives in tax cuts, it could invest €800 million in capital that would be smoothed out over a four-year period in respect of housing. We are in the middle of an almighty crisis. As legislators, we do not have the luxury of saying we will reach the mid-term or the higher end of capital investment in four or five years' time after coming through a decade of drought, of underinvestment in capital that was a result of Government decisions and budgetary decisions. We can argue why those decisions, taken by both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, were taken and for what effect, but they resulted in the crises we now have. We must take decisions now and then, and I acknowledge that we are increasing investment in public housing, but it is not enough. It does not meet the scale of the crisis we have out there.

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