Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It is state-sponsored vandalism and the victims are first-time buyers and communities throughout the country. We have anything between 25,000, 70,000 or 170,000 homes lying idle in the Ireland of 2023. The Government is that switched off it cannot even properly measure the scale of the problem because it simply does not seem to care. Property and property rights mean everything for Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Until that changes nothing will change. If a person can afford to leave a home vacant for years or a building derelict and abandoned, his or her pocket should be squeezed until the pips squeak. That is why Labour says “slap a levy of 1% of value or €2,000, whichever is highest, on the owners of vacant homes. Get it moving or the council will put a CPO on it.” Disgracefully, this tells us all we need to know about Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, they have decided to kick the residential zoned land tax into touch for another year. The farmers and developers got to the Government, which still sneers at Labour’s plans for a million homes over ten years, comprising 50,000 new builds and 50,000 vacancies, empty council homes and derelict would-be dwellings turned around to meet the needs of our growing population and our economic needs. That is the level of ambition we need. It is the level of ambition that Fianna Fail, true to what it likes us to think its values were back in its halcyon days, would do. Yes, there are capacity issues. One way to deal with that is, for example, to pay apprentices at least the rate of the national minimum wage and give the Housing Agency responsibility for construction skills. This could all be done at the stroke of a pen if the political will was there. In the meantime, those who can manage to find a place to rent, need the rent credit to be upped to €1,000, not the €750 announced today. Also, the Government needs to take on board Labour’s renters’ rights Bill and institute a scheme of no-fault evictions so that the law protects people in insecure tenancies. However, there is simply no substite for supply, and public supply at that. The Labour Party’s plan is clear. What we will do, is do much more than the Government is prepared to do this year. In fact, across all capital programmes the Government plans to spend only an additional €250 million. We would inject another €1.6 billion into capital investment to build 2,700 more social homes, building on the Government’s own less than adequate proposals.

The Labour Party is ambitious for Ireland, but is responsible too. I want to speak about the role of the State and the plans brought forward by the Minister today in relation to the use of the surplus. We agree that the surplus in corporation tax should not be spent on current expenditure. It should be used, for example, to build the homes we will need in the future. It should be used as well to make sure the just transition actually means something. That transition phase has not been scoped out for people. We need to make sure the investment that is required for communities throughout the country is injected and is used wisely and properly.

Finally, we need a discussion on tax. It is simply not good enough to say we can continue to spend and tax the way we are at the moment, continuing to reduce taxes while increasing spending. We have yet to have a debate in this House on proposals received from the Commission on Tax and Welfare this time last year. This Government is afraid of it because the commission has rightly proposed that we move away from taxes on income and labour and towards taxes on assets and capital. That is the future. That is what needs to be done. The Government needs to mature and grow up, take on that responsibility and make sure we have a tax system that works to make an Ireland that works for all.

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