Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Regarding the programme for Government and the commitments the Taoiseach and his Government made, the Taoiseach cannot deny that there are serious crises in health, housing and the whole area of tax justice and fairness. In health, for instance, the Department of Health now reliably appears to be at least €600 million over budget, having in each of the past number of years got substantial infusions of cash. It feels like no one in the Government is in charge of health. Regarding housing, a plumber married to someone like a self-employed hairdresser with a reasonably good business and perhaps a joint income of €80,000 or €90,000 cannot get an affordable house. Where they can get perhaps a second-hand house, the loan levels in the Taoiseach's and my constituency for a modest but well-built house, as he knows, are now reaching approximately €400,000 because land is changing hands at ten to 15 times what it was just a few years ago. Again, the Government simply seems adrift.

On tax justice and fairness, we have had the Comptroller and Auditor General's report of last week indicating that several hundred high net worth individuals, with assets of €50 million - I ask the Taoiseach to think how many €400,000 houses they could commit to - are paying roughly the same in tax as a family on an income of anywhere from €40,000 to €70,000.

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