Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In budget 2024, the Minister introduced this tax credit and that was, as I said, after sustained calls from Sinn Féin for the introduction of mortgage interest relief for households that had seen their mortgage rates spiral, but there are serious problems with the tax credit, as I told him at the time. I have raised the fact that 138,000 mortgage holders who have their seen their mortgage costs rise would not qualify for anything from the tax credit, given they have been excluded because their balance is less than €80,000. We also know that households were denied the mortgage interest relief tax credit because their incomes were too low. The Minister gave the figures earlier. Hundreds of people cannot claim it because their incomes are too low. This is absolutely outrageous and blatantly unfair and it shows the mess the Minister has made with this measure.

I am aware of a single mother whose annual mortgage costs have risen by more than €5,000, but she is being denied the tax credit because she is in receipt of a single person childcare credit. She does not have an income to allow her to benefit from this. Those who need this support the most are the people who are being denied it by the Government. Is the Minister going to address this or is he just going to say that is the way it is?

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