Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There is a realisation on the part of the Government that it has failed in this area. Although the budget does not contain everything needed to address the issue, it may have the new palpable momentum needed to show the public that progress is being made. Now the funding is in place to meet the mild targets set. No extra targets could have been set next year. Housing assistance payment funding had to be put in place to meet the short-term demand caused by the fact that the commitments made in recent years have not been met. The lending vehicle for providing competitive finance to the building sector is to be welcomed. We sought this measure and we will wait for the legislation to see how effective it can be. We welcome the vacant site levy to stop land hoarding. We welcome the commitment we sought for capital gains tax exemptions which can have a positive impact.

Where are the affordable housing measures, however? Where is the help and assistance for the cohort who cannot qualify for a council house and who cannot afford a mortgage, let alone rent, especially when some people must pay up to 50% of their income on it? There is nothing specific in the budget to deal with that. I am told affordability measures will be introduced in the coming weeks. Local authorities used to assist this cohort in the past. This week, I asked my local authority in County Offaly how many local authority mortgages it had given in the past several years. In 2014, it gave one; in 2015, it gave two; in 2016, it gave two; and this year to date, it has given three. That says it all. The local authorities are at the coalface of the community. They hear the credit unions saying publicly they are committed to investing to assist this cohort, yet we still have not seen any progress on how that might be done.

I hope the Government will bring forward affordability measures and will be in a position to provide a vehicle to access funding, despite the concerns over the competition rules which can be overcome. There is a role for a repurposed NAMA which can address the shortfall in funding, put housing units in place and lease them to local authorities for 60 or 70 years because the Government is only spending 50% of what it spent in 2008.

There is nothing specific in the budget to deal with vacant housing units. We were promised a vacant house strategy but we have not seen one. There was a commitment to support the Vacant Housing Refurbishment Bill 2017 which I brought to the House last week. Will the Government support it with the relevant funding and mechanisms to make it work? Last week, there was party gamesmanship with the town renewal scheme. It was almost as if the Government took €30 million off the local authorities which they used to distribute in their sleep, gave it to the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Deputy Ring, who then distributed it with much grandiose to Fine Gael Members around the country. That is just political one-upmanship. If the Government really wants to revitalise towns and villages, it must populate them. The Vacant Housing Refurbishment Bill 2017, which had universal approval, has at its heart, the willingness and mechanisms to do that. I hope the Government will ensure that happens.

In the coming weeks, the Government will be tested on balanced regional development with the review and implementation of the national planning framework document, along with the national infrastructure review. They have to be combined. We have to see a willingness on the part of the Government to subvent regions which are not being assisted in the way the east coast has succeeded in recent times. Take for example, the inner relief road in Edenderry, County Offaly, a town which has grown and needs to take advantage of its proximity to Dublin through the network of primary roads which has improved accessibly across the country.

That is vital for its success. The link road between the M6 and Tullamore and its bypass is vital for its success and to meet the demand for North-South infrastructural improvements. The east-west improvements that have been put in place have been positive, welcome and done their job but the need for North-South infrastructural improvements has been identified by IBEC and similar organisations.

Where, when and how apprenticeship programmes can benefit the regions needs to be considered in view of there being a deficit of apprentices in the construction sector, for example, and a fear in the sector and the economy that training programmes will not be able to cope if the Government is, for once, to meet expectations.

The Minister with responsibility for the designation of carbon tax funds is now present in the House. There was consideration of increasing carbon taxes further as a revenue-generating exercise to pay for other tax cuts in view of resources having to be split on a 2:1 split basis in favour of expenditure. In the context of having the privilege of representing my constituents, I must point out that there is a duty on Government to subvent their region when Bord na Móna and its excavation works dissipate in the coming years. Bord na Móna is making efforts to find new revenue streams and paths of competition and innovation. It is succeeding in some areas and failing in others. Previously, Bord na Móna products were exempt from carbon tax. The previous Government reinstated the tax on those products and doubled it. It is high time that my constituents' region is shown some appreciation by the Government and the members of the Government who represent it. There should be an innovation fund to assist replacement industry and enterprise to ensure that the energy sector and others are helped, assisted and promoted in order to allow alternative industry to emerge thereafter. That is an example of how the measures contained in the confidence and supply agreement can be used and augmented to assist regional development. Fianna Fáil expects to see that plainly and openly evident and highlighted when the relevant Bills are published in the coming weeks.

The budget is modest and nothing to write home about. There is some progress and certain areas in the health and education sectors have been catered for. Some efforts beyond that have been made regarding the National Treatment Purchase Fund. Those who negotiated on the part of the Government resisted the idea that such a measure was needed to deal with hospital waiting lists but Fianna Fáil insisted upon it and can now stand over it and point to the progress that has been made and the future potential in that regard. As regards education, improvements have again been made to the pupil-teacher ratio.

I looked at the confidence and supply agreement earlier today. I am beginning to think that all of its requirements will be fulfilled, apart from those related to housing. I do not know what that will mean for the future of the Government. The important things are implementation, deliverability, transparency and accountability. I know far more about the Taoiseach's special communications unit and the €5 million that was allocated to it yesterday than I do about the special housing delivery unit in the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government. That unit needs to identify itself, stand up, be accountable and start proving its worth. Fianna Fáil will be adjudicating and commenting upon the deliverability of aspects of this budget, in particular regarding housing.

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