Dáil debates

Thursday, 1 July 2021

Finance (Covid-19 and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2021: Second Stage

 

3:10 pm

Photo of Martin BrowneMartin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I congratulated Deputy McGuinness on taking the time to contribute to the debate. It is a pity that more of his colleagues do not do likewise.

Sinn Féin welcomes any measures that will help businesses through the pandemic. It is unfortunate that the ability of the Government to plan for changes in circumstances in the course of the pandemic is so lacking. Although the extension of supports we are here to discuss is welcome, the manner in which the Government has led so many businesses to the edge of reopening just to pull the rug from under them at the last minute is a disastrous way of doing things. Supports are needed desperately but, unfortunately, the Government has a habit of allowing businesses to spend money buying stock and making preparations for reopening but then putting an end to those plans with very little notice. This is a waste of the meagre resources with which many of these businesses have left with as a result of the pandemic and it is a waste of the resources with which they have been provided. What businesses need is not just the financial supports they deserve but a clear roadmap that includes contingency plans designed to address worst-case scenarios in the event of issues of growing concern ultimately interrupting scheduled reopening or the ability to trade effectively. Unfortunately, what we have seen this week is the inability of the Government to plan for interruptions to the reopening schedule and that has thrown the plans of many businesses into disarray and wasted the money those businesses have spent in anticipation of reopening.

On a side note, before I came into the Chamber, I got a phone call from a 64-year-old taxi driver. The Department is telling taxi drivers they have to retrain. Will someone get real in that Department? I am asking that the letter sent to taxi drivers this morning be withdrawn.

Workers have also been affected by this. Although the extension of the EWSS, which Sinn Féin has been calling for, is welcome, workers are suffering as a result of other factors that are bleeding their meagre resources dry and are limiting their ability to plan for the future and secure a place to call their own. There is a discrepancy between social housing income limits in my county of Tipperary and those in neighbouring counties. Income limits in County Tipperary are up to €5,000 lower than those in counties Limerick, Kilkenny and Waterford. That is excluding people from access to social housing in Tipperary but people on the same income who live a few miles away in another county are entitled to social housing. There is no justification for this disparity. These income levels were set in 2011, a decade ago, when private rent and private property prices were much lower. Given the scale of change in the cost of living since 2011, a review of these limits is long overdue. I call on the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, who is present, and his colleagues to bear that in mind. The Minister has given no indication as to when his Department expects to have completed this review. Instead of giving an answer and addressing the issue, he has sought to kick the can down the road while engulfed in a crisis relating to the ability of investment funds to put home ownership dreams out of the reach of many young children. The Government made a half-hearted attempt to make it seem like it was dealing with the issue but, crucially, set the new stamp duty rate too low for it to be off-putting to these funds. The exemption relating to apartments has left a significant number of people out in the cold.

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