Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On the digital tax issue, the Government certainly is concerned about it in the context of our sovereignty. Our view is that tax is a national competence and we would not like a digital tax to lead to other proposals such as a common consolidated corporate tax base, CCCTB, which we do not support. That said, ours is not an absolutist position.

EU tax harmonisation is in place already, for example the VAT directive is EU law underpinning how VAT works across the European Union. We have no difficulty with that. We are annoyed sometimes by the inflexibility that arises but it makes sense to have a VAT directive in the Single Market and customs are harmonised across the European Union. The vast majority of customs revenue goes straight to the European budget. It is not an absolutist position but we have a concern about anything that may threaten Ireland's tax sovereignty. There are no proposals for a national digital service tax of our own.

We recognise corporation tax is vulnerable. There has been an increase in the amount of tax paid by corporations to the Irish Exchequer in recent years. We do not know for sure why that is. Part of it is down to the fact that those companies are making a lot more profit, or are accounting for more of their profits in Ireland, and there have been changes to laws around intellectual property and there have been changes in accounting standards and practices in the US that seem to have had a particular impact on the increase in this year's tax receipts.

We are being prudent about it. We have established the rainy day fund and corporation profit tax receipts are being earmarked to go into that rainy day fund. It does not make sense and is bad policy to make long-term spending commitments on tax receipts that might be temporary windfalls. That mistake was made in the past, particularly with stamp duty. This Government is not going to repeat that mistake. That is one of the reasons for the establishment of the rainy day fund and the earmarking of corporation profit tax receipts as the revenue that will go into that fund. The Government has budgeted prudently for next year. The budget projections for next year project that the amount of money in corporation profit tax will be less than this year. If there is a surprise, it will be an upside surprise, rather than a downside surprise and I think that is prudent by the Minister for Finance.

It is my strong view that the way out of the housing crisis and solution to the housing shortage is primarily about supply. It is not just about supply, but is very much about supply. There will be 20,000 new houses and apartments built this year, more than any other year this decade. That will go up to 25,000 next year and hopefully 30,000 or 35,000 the year after. We will get to the position whereby the number of new homes being built exceeds demand and we will start to see a real change when that happens. There are over 100,000 new homes already on architects' desks for design currently and that shows what is potentially coming through in terms of additional supply.

I had the pleasure to be in Stormanstown, Dublin 9, yesterday to open a new housing development of 42 units with 150 people moving in there. That was done as a partnership involving Dublin City Council and a housing trust. Some people say that does not count because it was not a direct build by Dublin City Council. The people moving in there do not think that. They are pleased to be moving into those new homes with secure tenancies and are not concerned about the model that was used.

I disagree with Deputy Body Barrett. The problem with a lot of councils is Sinn Féin and others on the left wing voting down housing projects and proposals. That is being done in Dublin City Council, South Dublin County Council and other areas. There is a real ideology there that the only type of housing that should be built is social housing and the only way social housing should be built is through direct build by local authorities. I disagree with that.

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