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

I thank the Minister for all the work he and his team are doing relative to the State's resources and the circumstances we face. Budget 2023 provided critically-needed measures to cushion the economic blow of the increasing cost of living. There is no doubt that the short-term targeted measures will provide relief for families. It is for that reason I welcome the provisions in the budget.

I specifically welcome the tax credit for renters, which is a proposal I had raised internally in the Green Party as a key housing priority and, separately, with the Taoiseach during Questions on Policy and Legislation. However, I hope that the tax credit will be expanded beyond 2023 and continue for subsequent years.

Having said this, subsidies and rent reliefs are not the solutions to the housing and rental crisis and we cannot lose sight of this. The increased supply of cost-rental, affordable and social housing is what will help us emerge from this crisis. Recent figures that I have witnessed are pointing in the right direction with respect to the construction and completion of housing for our citizens.

Although we are the smallest of the three coalition parties, it is important that we do not underestimate the impact the Green Party has had so far on the Government's housing policy. Green-Party-mandated policies are being delivered. These policies include 30,000 cost-rental units through the LDA alone; legislation for 100% public housing on public land; the abolition of co-living and strategic housing developments, SHDs; provisions for community-led housing; tenures of indefinite duration; increased notice periods for tenancy termination; the expansion of housing first; and a vacant property tax.

Further to these, I recently tabled a Private Member's Bill on defective dwellings which, if pushed through the Dáil, will provide homeowners with a legal redress process. I am also working on embodied CO₂measurement and targets to be established by the State to reduce CO₂emissions in the built environment.

I have worked and continue to work with the stakeholders with regard to defective dwellings, considering thousands of homeowners are living in defective properties. Defects ranging from balcony faults and fire-safety issues to water ingress have subsequently caused problems with insuring properties, reselling and mortgages being withdrawn.

While we continue to promote home ownership, we need to ensure that the existing homes are safe to inhabit. I welcome the Minister's actions of setting up a working group. Its review has now gone to the next stage where the respective Departments can expedite its findings into a clear redress programme. In the meantime, it is paramount to provide relief for these homeowners and ensure a tax rebate is offered, as I have previously called for.

We need to reduce embodied carbon. Buildings are currently responsible for 39% of global energy-related CO₂emissions. In Ireland, 25% come from operational emissions and 14% come from embodied CO₂of materials. We are lagging far behind other EU countries by stalling the introduction of whole-life CO₂measurement and targets.

The Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage is due to publish its recommendations and I hope the Minister will work to ensure that they are implemented through the regulations akin to Part L of the building regulations. Part L primarily deals with operational emissions and we can be proud to know that Ireland is a world leader in this area. It is a Green Party policy and has brought more people out of fuel poverty than any other policy. I hope the powers that be will make embodied CO₂measurement and targets as successful as Part L.

See this speech in context