Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

With respect, I have asked the Minister a direct question here. The Taoiseach is upfront about it - he wants tax breaks for developers. That is the cul-de-sac which he wants us to go down, which underlines the abject failure of the housing policy of this Government and indeed the Taoiseach. Can the Minister for Finance tell the House if he is willing to consider tax breaks for developers? The Taoiseach, who is the Minister's boss, wants him to do it. Is he willing to consider that? Does he side with the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, which in 2015 studied the issue of tax breaks to stimulate construction in the housing market and concluded: "Tax breaks will have limited impact on supply if supply has been constrained by [other factors] ... tax breaks in these circumstances can simply lead to a transfer of tax revenue from the state to developers with no effect on supply." Does the Minister support the view of the Commission on Taxation and Welfare? It reached similar conclusions to the effect that such tax breaks "can lead to further price growth in areas where supply is particularly constrained, the beneficiaries of which are the land owners and developers at the expense of forgone revenues".

Does the Minister support the view of his own Department which said in the past year that tax reductions resulting in transfers from the State to developers without any significant effect on supply have a very significant cost to the taxpayer? The ESRI, the Commission on Taxation and Welfare and the Department have all come out against tax breaks for developers - they have said that all such tax breaks will do is benefit developers, and they will have no impact on supply - but the Taoiseach still wants them because his policies are pro-developer and pro-funds. I will put the question plainly. Is the Minister for Finance willing to contemplate tax breaks for developers, as the Taoiseach wants?

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