Dáil debates

Wednesday, 3 November 2021

Finance Bill 2021: Second Stage (Resumed)

 

6:52 pm

Photo of Patricia RyanPatricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

On unveiling the budget, the Minister said the Government was conscious of the cost-of-living pressures on the public and businesses. Anyone who even skims the text of the budget documentation will know it is not the case. The Government lacks a vision of any sort for solving the crises in housing and healthcare. Never has so much been spent to achieve so little. Energy prices are spiralling out of control and the Government’s plan is to increase them further with carbon taxes. It is unjust to beat rural Ireland with a stick without providing a fair alternative. Not many people I know can afford to spend over €10,000 on solar panels or a heat pump, especially as they will have to wait many years before recouping their investment. Their investment would be recouped quicker if the Government implemented a proper microgeneration scheme. Instead of having done so, the Government made the umpteenth announcement that the scheme is coming. We are all waiting for Godot.

House prices and rents are out of control and the budget lacks measures to reassure families. I looked at www.daft.ieand what I saw was appalling: a studio apartment for €800 in Suncroft, County Kildare, and another in Brannockstown, County Kildare, for €900. The extra €100 gets you a see-through curtain between the bed and sofa in what looks like a converted garage. I am not codding when I say that. I have no idea whether there is planning permission for either property, but nobody is checking and it is a landlord’s market. Tenants can like or lump it. That is the Government’s attitude, which is nothing short of a disgrace. Both of the properties I mentioned appear to have just one electric heater. It would be almost cheaper to switch on the oven and leave its door open. We need homes, not bedsits.

The housing policy over the past decade has failed under Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, along with their cheerleaders the Green Party and the Labour Party. The Government policy serves landlords and institutional investors. This budget sees the introduction of a 3% rate of tax on zoned residential land, with a two-year lead-in time for land zoned before January 2022 and a three-year lead-in time for land zoned after that date. There is no sense of urgency whatsoever. Sinn Féin, when in government, will turn the tables away from landlords, vultures and cuckoo funds in favour of ordinary workers and families.

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