Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I listened to the budget speeches on Tuesday and have been reflecting on them since. It seems this budget is a little bit of everything and very little of anything. It lacks any particular strategic direction. It is pretty much a case of continuing with the way we are - give a little bit to everybody and let us not change the status quobecause there could be an election soon. That is what I take from this budget. Maybe I am wrong, but we will see.

I want to return to a couple of initiatives in the budget. In doing so, I am mindful of a conversation I had last night with a constituent with a great deal of experience of management in our health service. As our conversation concluded, he said that throwing money at dysfunction does not stop the dysfunction; it just wastes the money. Unless systemic problems are addressed, throwing money at them is not going to matter. There are two issues I want to focus on, one of which is the money for aviation. I welcome it to the extent that our aviation sector is in a difficult place and something needs to be done. However, unless the root causes of the problems in our aviation sector are addressed, throwing a little bit of money at it is not going to help.

I welcome the additional money for regional airports and I particularly welcome the fact Shannon and Cork will be able to draw money from that fund into the future. However, we do not have an aviation policy in this State. There is a lot of talk, particularly from Sinn Féin, about the necessity to bring Shannon Airport back under the ownership of the Dublin Airport Authority so there is one airport authority. That may well be, although I am not particularly convinced by it. However, unless and until we have an aviation policy in the State, it does not matter. Dublin Airport was competing with Shannon Airport when they were in the same group, and Dublin Airport is competing with Shannon Airport now they are in different groups. Therefore, the ownership structure is secondary to the fact Dublin Airport is doing everything possible to take out Shannon Airport. To compensate for that, the State, which owns Dublin Airport, is going to give Shannon Airport a bit more money while it continues to be undercut by Dublin Airport in any of the deals it tries to make.

The €90 million of funding, as I heard the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, say on radio, will go towards landing fees. That is something that is transferred on to passengers, and it works out at perhaps €14 to €20 a passenger. It is a sizeable sum that people look at when they are determining where they are going to fly to because it is going to add to the cost of their ticket. Of course, people who do not have a vaccine passport, which is a larger proportion of the population in any other European country than it is here, are the people we are trying to attract to the country. We require them to have a PCR test to come into Ireland, just like Irish people who go abroad are required to have one on their return. That is unique in Europe. Other countries work with an antigen test and have done since travel was reopened.

This PCR test costs between €100 to €150 depending on where people are. Of course, they have to go to a particular institution to get a PCR test in those other countries because it is only used to confirm a clinical diagnosis in most countries. Therefore, they have to go and queue up with people who have been clinically diagnosed as having Covid. They queue up with them to get this PCR test that costs €120. As it is a contagious disease, we are told, that greatly increases their risk of getting it. They have the test and it is negative because they have just got Covid, and they come back and they produce this PCR test, which costs them €120. That is not seen as a disincentive to coming to Ireland but the €20 landing charge is. It is utter nonsense.

According to the local authorities, there are only 1,000 derelict sites in the country. That is nonsense. There are 1,000 derelict sites in County Clare alone and I am sure there are 1,000 derelict sites in County Carlow and 1,000 in County Louth. There was a local authority staff member in County Louth who was very active in dealing with derelict sites, although, in response to his activity, he got moved sideways out of his job. Local authorities are doing nothing to combat derelict sites, just as local authorities were doing very little to combat vacant sites. Now, there is a new tax on zoned land. The land on which that tax is going to be levied is going to be identified by the local authorities, which did nothing to use the infrastructure or the measures they had at their disposal to combat vacant sites, and which are doing almost nothing to combat derelict sites, yet the Government is doing nothing at all in this budget about derelict sites.

I called for two measures. One is a reduction in capital gains tax on those selling derelict sites for a short period, that is, a window in which to sell them – to use them or lose them. The second is that the help-to-buy scheme would be extended to include people buying a derelict site and bringing it back into occupation. There should be time conditionality or a window on that. No matter what incentives the Government brings in around housing, it is going to be five to ten years before we see results, but we could bring back derelict sites as they do not have to go through the planning process in many instances, and they could be brought back into use very quickly. Yet, the Government has done nothing about that. I am disappointed that was not in this budget.

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