Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The Minister, Deputy Coveney's, botched appointment of Katherine Zappone was a scandal for many reasons, one of which was his inconsistent and contradictory statements to the Oireachtas foreign affairs committee. This necessitated two visits to the committee by the Minister so that he could clarify and expand on remarks he had made. It seems that Ministers giving incorrect information to Oireachtas Members is a theme of this Government. On 24 June, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, clearly and unequivocally told my colleague, Deputy Cian O'Callaghan, on the record of this House: "[The shared equity scheme] has been passed by the Central Bank [and] has received approval...". The Minister repeated this claim earlier this month when he appeared on RTÉ's "Prime Time". No such approval of the shared equity scheme was given by the Central Bank. In fact, both the bank and the ESRI, as well as officials of the Departments of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, and Finance, have been highly critical of it. They have all warned that the shared equity scheme will fuel house price inflation.

Yesterday, hundreds of people gathered outside this House to protest about the housing crisis. We will see more of that in the coming months. I went out to the protestors, as did my colleague, Deputy O'Callaghan, and it is very clear that they cannot take further house price increases. However, the Central Statistics Office, CSO, announced yesterday that house prices had increased by 8.6% in the year to July. Houses prices have doubled since 2013. The Tánaiste has been in government for all that time. The shared equity scheme was drafted by the construction industry and lobbied for by developers. They remain almost its only supporters. They support it because it will fuel further house price increases. It is in their interest. In the UK, a similar scheme resulted in house prices increasing and a boom in profits for large developers. There was no additional supply in the locations where it was needed. That was despite government spin in the UK.

As if that was not bad enough, we now have a Minister falsely claiming the scheme is supported by the regulator. Does the Tánaiste think it is acceptable for the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to come into this House and make false claims about the Central Bank's approval of a Government scheme? Does he agree that we should be able to trust information that is given by Ministers to this House? We hope lessons have been learned from the Zappone debacle. Will the Tánaiste call on the Minister to come in and make a full statement and correct the record as a matter or urgency?

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