Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The costs of construction are rising sharply. Yesterday, we learned that child homelessness increased by 40% over the past year in counties Cork and Kerry. In the middle of a housing disaster, with thousands of families homeless and a whole generation trapped in a cycle of ever-increasing rents, it is increasingly expensive to build a home. Somehow, the Government's response is to make it even more expensive. This defective concrete products levy will add up to €4,000 to the price of a house. I reiterate that it will add €4,000. Even if a family benefited from every measure in last week's budget, that total would represent only a fraction of the costs this measure will impose on them. It is precisely those people who need support to get homes that the Government is making pay the price for failures they had nothing to do with, at exactly the same time as those are trying to get their homes.

The scandal around mica, pyrite and fire safety defects is due to a disgraceful lack of regulation during the early 2000s and irresponsible practices by some in the construction industry. The Government's levy will especially hit families in rural areas who are more likely to be building their own homes. At a time when it is harder than ever to stay in a rural area and have families settle in rural communities, the Government has burdened precisely these same young people with the cost of paying for Fianna Fáil's mistakes. Moreover, the Government knows this is wrong. Numerous Government backbenchers pointed out this inequity in their speeches on the budget last week.

The Minister for Finance spoke earlier about how no alternatives have been offered. The ESRI has called for the levy to be scrapped and said that, instead, windfall corporation taxes should pay for the redress scheme. It is not the case, therefore, that no one is offering an alternative; it is that the Government has opted to specifically penalise young families and those trying to build new homes in the middle of a housing crisis. Members of the Government sat there shaking their heads earlier at the people making these points, but anything that could reduce the supply of new housing at a time like this, in this kind of housing crisis, is simply ridiculous. Along with the Minister of State's party's litany of failed and costly housing policies, this Government is actively placing barriers in the way of young families having homes.

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