Francis Noel Duffy (Dublin South West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

As we recover from one of the most challenging times in the history of the State, it was important our budget aimed to restore livelihoods, rebuild the sectors destroyed by the pandemic and protect the most vulnerable as we mitigate the climate crisis. I believe this budget has succeeded in doing so.

The solution to the rental crisis is State-led affordable accommodation. That is what cost rental is. It provides State-led high-quality affordable housing with secure, indefinite tenancies so no tenant is at risk of homelessness. I welcome the budget target of 2,000 cost rental units per year, a fivefold increase on last year's budget. We already know the demand is extremely high and we need multiples of this number. I have advocated and will continue to advocate for a figure of 10,000 cost rental units per year for ten years. This will make up 20% of our rental market at rents 40% and 50% lower than the market prices. This is the State intervention we need to stabilise our rental sector and bring down the cost of rents.

Critically, we need to ensure a just transition towards a climate-neutral economy by protecting our most vulnerable and creating sustainable green jobs and opportunities. I am glad to see a commitment of €300 million for residential and community retrofit schemes, of which more than €109 million is for free upgrades for low-income homes and €60 million is for low-cost retrofit loan schemes.

The purpose of the carbon tax is to deter people from using polluting CO2-emitting fuels. The tax is fully ring-fenced to assist families in the transition to renewable energies with Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland funding for solar panels, retrofitting, heat exchanges and geothermal utilities. Most important, the tax, as reported by the Economic and Social Research Institute recently, protects households most in need to the point where they are better off. To say otherwise is disingenuous.

As well as increasing our supply of new builds of social and affordable housing, we have thousands of vacant sites serviced and zoned for residential use but lying idle. I welcome the step to replace the vacant site levy with the new zoned property tax, which finally closes many loopholes that allowed sites to be exempt from the levy. This tax will be more effective, increase the number of sites subject to tax and, ultimately, increase housing supply. I support giving local authorities enough time to map the relevant sites before implementing the tax through the Revenue Commissioners. Ideally, I would like to see the 3% figure increase to 7% quickly in order to realise these vacant sites.

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