Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I ask the Taoiseach to scrap the Government's concrete block levy. The proposal is flawed and will make the housing crisis even worse. The Taoiseach says the levy is to ensure that industry contributes to redress schemes for defective blocks and pyrite. However, the reality is that this is not a levy on the industry at all. The Government's scheme is really a levy on those desperately seeking to buy or build a home, because companies will simply factor it in. They will pass on the increase to customers and it will inevitably push up prices that, as the Taoiseach is aware, have already soared beyond their Celtic tiger peak. The Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland has warned that the levy could increase the price of a home by an eye-watering €4,000. Incredibly, it will also force homeowners with defective blocks in Mayo, Donegal, Clare and Limerick to pay even more to fix their homes, which is crazy.

We are in the middle of an unprecedented housing disaster. For so many, affordability is a pipe dream and now the Government's levy will hit ordinary people in the pocket while they struggle with sky-high housing costs. Taoiseach, imagine for a moment that you were a member of the generation locked out of home ownership - dealing with extortionate rent so you cannot save for a deposit, with a historic lack of supply pushing up house prices and with the financial muscle of cuckoo funds sending those prices skyrocketing further - and then you hear that the Government, which should be working to get house prices down, is going to introduce a measure that will add thousands of euro to the price of a home. Imagine that. Taoiseach, imagine you were a first-time buyer who, after scrimping and scraping for years, was finally able to afford a home and then the Government comes along with this levy to make it harder again, or that you were one of those living in a house with defective blocks which is crumbling all around you while you have been crying out for a credible and fair remediation scheme, or that you were one of those who bought an apartment, duplex or other home riddled with Celtic tiger era fire safety defects and you have been left with no scheme at all. Could the Government honestly look any of those people in the eye and tell them that the levy is about them? It is a levy that puts the burden and pain on ordinary home buyers instead of where it belongs - on the banks, the profits of big developers and those responsible for defects. Ardóidh tobhach an Rialtais ar bhloic choincréite praghsanna tithe. Cuirfear ar aghaidh chuig gnáthcheannaitheoirí tí é. Ba cheart é a scriosadh agus tobhach atá dírithe ar na bainc, na forbróirí móra agus iad siúd atá freagrach as na bloic lochtacha a chur ina áit.

Sinn Féin has tabled a motion before the Dáil tonight to correct this mess. I ask all Deputies to support it but it really should not have to go to a vote.

I ask the Taoiseach to do the right thing. It is very clear from the reaction on the Government benches that there is a realisation that this levy, as constructed, is not the way forward. I ask the Government to scrap the concrete block levy now and replace it with a measure that will put the burden on those responsible for defects and not on the shoulders of those struggling to buy or to build a home.

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