Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

A 10% levy on concrete products is a tax on concrete products. However, the Government takes not only the 10% levy it is looking to put on concrete products, including blocks, but also 23% VAT, which is another tax, on products that are delivered to a site for supply only. The Government then takes a further 13% tax if it is supply and fit. Then what does the Government do in a time of crisis?

It takes 50% in fuel taxes. Manufacturers of the blocks deliver the blocks and the concrete to your house and the Government takes 50% on that and we wonder why we have inflation in this country.

Then the Government announces grants. It is going to give grants to the farmers for slurry tanks but sorry, it may be giving them grants but it is taking back 10% of it in tax. Does the Government think the people of the country are fools? Its absolute lack of understanding of what it is doing is astounding. The Government is creating inflation and creating hardship for every first-time buyer, every person who is buying a house and wants to renovate it and anyone who is in a position to build a house. The Government is putting another 10% tax on them. On top of that, people have to pay local authorities €5,000, €6,000 or €7,000 if they want to build a house on their own land, which is considered to be another tax. Does the Government know any other word besides "tax"? They are cowards. They would not take on the industries that created this problem, that is, the two or three quarries that created this problem. They are cowards because they will not take them on. They want every single person in this country to pay for it. It is like bailing out the banks all over again, but the public has to pay for it. Shame on the Government that it has not stood up to the quarries that caused the problem. There was not one quarry in Limerick that had pyrite but we imported it from other counties. The Government wants everyone in this country to pay again because of its cowardly mistakes.

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