Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There is an awful difference between people making what Deputy Boyd Barrett might call outrageous profits and people making a living. I can see nothing wrong with that and provided that at the end of the day people can have affordable housing and that it will not be exorbitant, that is what we all want. I would be worried too when I see the way prices are going, that again it is going beyond the control of working people who want to go away and get a mortgage and have a life along with it. They should not be stuck with a mortgage whereby they will not be able to afford to do any of the other things that young families might want to do. During a debate like this it is not helpful to hear people being branded like that. I do not agree with that.

On what is being proposed in the Bill, I would urge caution again because there are people who might own property and who are not developing it right now. Punishing people or taxing them to an extreme that forces them into doing something at a time that they might not be able to do it or that it does not suit them would involve legislating for everybody's private business and that cannot be done. Everybody's personal situation cannot be legislated for in that way. We cannot paint everybody with the same brush. Yes, perhaps there are people who were hoarding land to the detriment of the people who we are elected to represent but it is about balance and being prudent. We have to be careful about what we do when we make legislation to deal with an issue like this. I appreciate where Deputy Wallace is coming from. His heart is in the right place and his intentions are good but we have to look at situations such as where I am from where if families want to build a home on their own land to take care of their housing needs, in many cases they are not allowed to do so or there are serial objectors who stop them and sterilise home farms and stop farmers from developing on their own land. Those are things that are of concern to me.

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