Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

As I said earlier, it is completely unacceptable, whether it is €5 billion or €6 billion, that we are disposing of such an enormous sum of public money in the dead of night without proper debate. I have made our view very clear, as has People Before Profit. Other Deputies stated they do not have a problem with the principle but I do. I made this point both at a meeting of the Committee on Budgetary Oversight and elsewhere in public, and I reiterate it now to the Minister and the Tánaiste. The Government is correct to say we cannot fully rely on this windfall of corporation tax receipts, although it is worth highlighting how big that windfall is and the fact it denotes a massive increase in corporate profits. Corporation tax receipts have gone from €15 billion last year to €20 billion this year, suggesting a dramatic increase in corporate profitability.

What could we do with that money, which should not go to current expenditure, rather than put it away in a piggy bank, to deal with the rainy day now that would reduce current expenditure in the future, as well as being a good investment of billions of euro in public money we have available to us? The answer is we could buy up rental accommodation scheme, RAS, and HAP properties, vacant and derelict properties and some of the newly constructed developer properties which, if we do not buy them, will be bought by international investment funds that will charge €2,500 a month to people who cannot afford it, and we will then pay for them in any event with RAS and HAP. Why would we not use those billions of euro, on a once-off basis, to expand the public social and affordable housing stock, address the housing crisis and reduce future current expenditure?

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