Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the Deputies for making contributions in this important debate. I have no doubt that no Deputy in this House, Government or Opposition, underestimates the gravity of the current housing challenge that is presented throughout all our communities. All Members have family and friends who are feeling this acute crisis throughout the country that we are trying to respond to. As a constituency Deputy doing clinics on a weekly basis, I too hear the frustrations of my constituents who are in very difficult situations trying to resolve housing solutions in a sustainable way for them and their families. That is why our resolve to unlock this crisis is right across government and backed up by a €4 billion multi-annual plan, a plan that has 213 actions trying to ensure that our State ramps up capacity and delivers much-needed sustainable homes right into our community.

The evidence is there. The hope is there for communities throughout the country. Some 25,000 homes have been completed in the past year, with 28,000 homes currently under construction and new planning permissions, which have improved in the past year, for 44,000 homes. Commencements are an on upward trajectory right across the economy, which is the evidence that communities can look at. People can see builders in their communities delivering homes that are so much needed in all sectors, both public housing and private housing, which is so essential for our economy. We have gone from the third lowest in the EU for house completions right into the top five. That shows the significance of the improvements being made across our economy.

Looking after the most vulnerable, as I do in my portfolio in the area of Traveller accommodation, we are hopefully, for the third year in a row, on the cusp of spending all our capital budget. We will have a significant increase next year of 10%, which is vital for the communities I work with. We continue to implement the expert review across government, ensuring we have a delivery mechanism – our programme board – to watch as a guardian over the 31 local authorities to ensure delivery.

Viability is a key part of Government as we try to ensure that the many planning permissions granted throughout the State are unlocked and activated in order that communities feel the benefit. Across this Government and the previous one, we have provided record funding for the urban regeneration and development fund to support our cities and regional towns to ensure compact and sustainable growth as we face a huge climate challenge. Homes are being made viable for the private sector to unlock.

Our zoned land tax is being legislated for through the Finance Act and mapping processes are under way in the local authorities to ensure the days of speculating, sitting on and hoarding zoned land come to an end. A significant taxation tool is coming down the line to ensure that communities feel the benefit of houses being delivered. The Croí Cónaithe fund is also to assist with viability, with which the majority of the Opposition disagrees, in rural towns throughout the country. This will bring derelict and vacant homes back into use to support local towns and ensure schools can hold on to an extra teacher, GAA clubs can flourish and local shops can be kept open. This is building sustainable communities, which is important. We will shortly have the heads of Bill to provide for land value capture and sharing, another mechanism to ensure the State gets the value of the uplift from development gain through increasing property prices.

These are radical measures that this Government is taking to try to tackle the housing crisis. We will continue to see the benefit of all those mechanisms in the supply of new houses. In addition, we have a vacant homes tax and ready-to-build scheme, which give people options.

Many Deputies spoke about rural planning and the challenges that some communities face in that regard. We can see from the rates that 85% of all rural planning applications are approved. However, the Government is giving options. If people cannot meet the threshold, they will have an opportunity to get a serviced site in their town or on its periphery and have that option to build their forever home. That is what this Government is about - activating planning permissions and ensuring that communities have a chance to get sustainable tenancies.

Believe me, every single week in my clinic I hear the voices of vulnerable people who are looking for communities. I tell people every week in my home town of Mullingar that hundreds of new social homes are currently under construction. I can point out to people who are frustrated and feeling the pain that in their community there are builders on site delivering new social homes. There is a huge amount of hope that their problem will be resolved. While I appreciate it is difficult in the short term, the hope is there.

I will turn to what the Opposition, particularly Sinn Féin, is proposing to resolve this crisis. I have heard the Sinn Féin spokesperson, Deputy Ó Broin, state in many television and radio debates that he could deliver 20,000 new public homes next year. Notwithstanding the huge issues we have with capacity, we have 167,000 construction workers now working across the economy. Notwithstanding the changes in supply chains following the war in Ukraine and other issues that have arisen as we try to grapple with price increases, Sinn Féin's silver bullet for increasing residential property building is to increase commercial stamp duty by 66%. What does that do for the vital resources that make up the cake that runs our economy and builds all those social homes? It stops enterprise, business expansion and farmers seeking to expand our agri-industry. It stops all those key employers that are generating the resources this country so badly needs. The Opposition will increase stamp duty by 66% to stop all that. At a time of crisis, when this Government is trying to encourage landlords to stay in the marketplace and we know that 85% of landlords own either one or two homes, Sinn Féin’s answer is to charge an extra €400 per unit through taxation. It wants to tax small landlords more as they leave the marketplace. That is the answer from the Opposition.

We saw that the rent tax credit was totally unfunded in Sinn Féin's alternative budget. Again, it is basing targets on the pricing strategies of 2021 when so much has changed. We need to look hard when we are trying to offer solutions. Sound bites can look good on social media as people look in. However, the raw evidence is that Sinn Féin is trying to slow down an economy and almost bring it to a halt. Deputy Ó Broin has been asked many times on national television how proposes to take construction workers from the commercial sector. Doing that comes at a significant price.

We have to try to continue to ramp up construction for all society and ensure completions remain on an upward trajectory. We need to look at the evidence in our communities where builders are on site delivering high-quality A-rated homes to the best regulation now right across our country in a plan-led environment. We have the right homes going into the right locations for the first time ever in this State. We are getting away from the past when we had more than 10 million homes zoned and no infrastructure aligned to zoning. We are now in a very good plan-led place. I appreciate that it is frustrating for a cohort in society for whom we are trying to unlock this.

I repeat that the evidence is there and we have to stick the course. Across government, we will ensure that people get much sought-after homes and the opportunity of realising their dream, their rightly-held aspiration to own their own home. That is what this Government is about.

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