Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

In five day's time we will have the annual budget. True to form, most of the major announcements will be leaked over the weekend. The State is in an unprecedented situation. Billions are available to invest yet there is a poverty of ambition and no vision. We live in a rich country that feels so poor. It is a country of winners and losers. Ireland has a chronic infrastructural deficit. Despite recent increases in the capital budget, as a percentage of overall Government spending it remains below where it was in 2008. Two weeks ago, the Minister, Deputy Chambers said you would have €3 billion extra to spend on infrastructure from the sale of AIB shares. The summer economic statement outlines an increase in capital spending of €1.7 billion under the national development plan, up to €14.5 billion, bolstered by what I have described as the gimmick of €750 million of so-called windfall receipts. That leaves a gap of €1.3 billion. Is the Minister for Finance planning to formally change the capital spending allocations? Will there be a new national development plan or are we going to get more fiscal gimmickry in this budget? Will the Tánaiste confirm today that the Government intends to increase the budget figures that were published in July in the summer economic statement? We need to invest more, not in gold-plated bike sheds or security huts but in our hospitals, public transport, retrofitting and most critically in housing. The greatest workers' rights issue remains housing. Prices rose by 10% last year. Affordability is the problem. We need much-increased supply of over 50,000 new homes a year. Government policies like Help to Buy have actually hiked up prices. The ESRI confirmed this last year. It has driven demand rather than boosting supply. It is making homes dearer. Reports today suggest the Minister wants the cap to increase above half a million. Is it Fianna Fáil policy to subsidise the cost of housing costing more than half a million? Driving development needs increased funding from the State and policy certainty. Planning law has been changed almost yearly in recent years. Crucially, the residential zoned land tax has become a political football. We still do not know if it is going to be in place next year. We do not have a revised housing target from the target and no clear sense if it will invest more when the private market and developers have failed to build enough. Housing for All proposes to build 10,000 social housing units next year and 6,400 affordable and cost rental homes. That is barely any increase on this year, and you say Housing for All is the only show in town.

The Labour Party will outline its budget plans tomorrow to increase that by up to 6,000 more units a year, focused on public and affordable homes. Can the Tánaiste guarantee that the residential zoned land tax will be operational next year? Does he agree with increasing Help to Buy for homes costing more than half a million? Are the Minister for Finance and the Minister for public expenditure going to increase capital spending above what was in the summer economic statement? Will the budget commit to increasing the number of social and affordable homes that will be built, way beyond what is committed to in the Housing for All policy?

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