Dáil debates

Thursday, 1 July 2021

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

 

4:00 pm

Photo of Paschal DonohoePaschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State, Deputy Fleming, gave a very comprehensive overview of the legislation so I will confine myself to responding back to the different comments made by Opposition and Government Deputies during the debate. I want to begin by addressing some of the points made by Deputy Connolly where she invoked the darkness of Kafka in her analysis of the Department and the Government's housing policy and the work that we are doing.

I had the opportunity yesterday morning to visit the work under way in Dominick Street on the northside of Dublin, where I saw at first hand the work that is being done by Dublin City Council. It is building new public and social homes for 70 families, partly to move families from existing council accommodation in Dominick Street and with the balance being used to bring families who are on the waiting list for public and social housing into new accommodation.

To allege that this is a Government that has allowed the market to take the lead in providing accommodation to those who need support and who need housing, accommodation and homes to be delivered by the local authority and by the Government is at odds with the reality of what I saw yesterday. I saw new, excellent accommodation that will be made available at affordable rents, directly funded by the Government and delivered by Dublin City Council in the heart of the city centre. That, more than an analogy to Kafka, is the reality of what this Government is doing. The charge that the Government is not playing a leading role in the delivery of housing in the country does not stand up to scrutiny for a second when the largest single builder of homes in the country at the moment is the Government, through local authorities. We accept and believe the private sector has a role to play in building homes and it was good to hear Deputy Connolly accept that private developers have a role to play in the building of homes. However, we also believe that this must be accompanied by the State, through local authorities, directly building homes. That is what is happening in Dominick Street, in St. Mary's Mansions in Sean McDermott Street, in St. Bricin's Park in the heart of Stoneybatter and in O'Devaney Gardens, through work Dublin City Council is doing. That is the reality of what is under way and that is only a small part of the northside of Dublin. This is progress that is being replicated all over the country. We wish it were happening quicker but because of the effects of the pandemic, for a period we were not in a position to build homes. We are now coming through the pandemic, notwithstanding the challenges we face with the Delta variant, and the Government is committed to directly building homes at scale through local authorities.

I will deal with the various points made about the Bill. Deputy Doherty made the point that there is a real possibility of an uneven recovery, as we hopefully put the pandemic behind us. That is the reason the Government has such a breadth of economic supports in place. That is the reason we have the employment wage subsidy scheme and the pandemic unemployment. It is to reduce the risk of an uneven recovery and to use all of the resources that are available to us to support the income and jobs of citizens at a time in which they need help the most.

Deputy Nash referred to assessing the role of the pandemic unemployment payment and keeping it under review. It is in acknowledgement of that point that the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, made the decision to extend the entry point for the pandemic unemployment payment for a while longer. She did so in recognising that there are citizens whom we would have hoped would be back at work but who will not be a position to do so. Deputy Nash takes a different view on the role of VAT in the hospitality sector. The role the rate will play for now is in supporting the viability of large employers and many small employers at exactly the time they need help the most.

Deputy Murnane O'Connor welcomed the certainty that is being provided by the schemes. We are extending many of the schemes up to the end of this year to give the certainty to which the Deputy refers. Deputy Patricia Ryan spoke about the need for small businesses to get support. Again, that is the reason the schemes are being extended, including the employment wage subsidy scheme, to provide the support small businesses need to keep them viable as we weather this phase of the pandemic. Thank God we are making progress with the number of people we are vaccinating at the moment but we know that there is still much more that needs to be done.

Deputy Tóibín stated that we are ignoring science. Whatever we can be accused of this week, a charge that cannot be levelled at us is that we are ignoring the scientists and the public health authorities that work alongside the Government and NPHET in giving us advice. He referred to the idea that the Government is outsourcing policy decisions to NPHET. He cannot have it both ways. He cannot attack the Government for the decisions we have made and also say we are outsourcing the ability to make those decisions to NPHET. It has been very difficult to make the decision to keep more of the hospitality sector closed for a number of weeks. We know the obligation we have to those affected, to outline a plan regarding how they can regain their viability through indoor hospitality and for other forms of indoor activity for other businesses that are not in hospitality. We have done it because we have been guided by how we can protect public health while we continue with vaccination programmes that are making a difference to the country.

I welcome the fact that Deputy Boyd Barrett is supporting the Bill, notwithstanding the reservations he has about various parts of it. Deputy McGuinness outlined his views on the hospitality sector and the need to work with it. I assure him that we are committed to working with it. It is because of the engagement we have had with the sector that we have an employment wage subsidy scheme that is working and a Covid restrictions support scheme that has had a major impact. We have a lower VAT rate for the hospitality sector at a time it needs it and we have waived the need to pay rates for a period because that is exactly the kind of support the hospitality sector needs.

Deputy Martin Kenny made the fair point that in many cases, the Government has stepped in as the payer of income of last resort when the pandemic hit but went on to make the observation that it was centre-right governments that were doing that. I make the case to the Deputy that it is because of how we managed our public finances up to this point, combined now with the support of the European Central Bank, that we are in a position to put in place these supports. That is not about being right wing; it is about trying to make sure that the national finances were safe, were we to be hit by the unexpected. They were in a good position and combined with the work of the European Central Bank, that has allowed us to do what we are doing at the moment.

Deputy O'Donoghue referred to the need to strengthen the supports. The reason we extended many of the supports in the way we have was to ensure that if we did hit a difficulty, as we have this week, we would not be scrambling around changing support schemes. We would have a framework in place that is effective, credible and could help, in anticipation of things not always going the way we want. That is what has happened this week.

Deputy Michael Collins referred to nursing homes. The reason changes are being made to support levels for nursing homes is because of the vaccination programme and our vaccination efforts, which in many cases began in nursing homes, to try to make safe and support our most vulnerable citizens who needed as much help as possible.

Deputy O'Reilly alleged that we are shrugging our shoulders in relation to the retail sector. Again, the very reason we have the current supports in place is to assist the retail sector. I am conscious of today's news on the decision made by Gap in the United Kingdom and in Ireland. I agree that shopping habits have changed but that does not diminish the determination of the Government to try to support retailers when this change is under way.

As for the stamp duty change included in this Bill, it is appropriate to include it here as this is a finance Bill. The reason the Government made the changes that it did is to deter behaviour that we wanted to reduce and stop but at the same time to continue to have the policies in place that allow new apartments and homes to be built. That is what we aim to do with this Bill, namely, to put the balance in place to allow new homes to be built in the future. I commend the Bill to the House.

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