Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party) | Oireachtas source

I wish the Minister well in his position and I look forward to working with him. I have been in construction all my life and I want to give the Minister a bit of advice and to ask him for his help. Why can we not extend the fee waiver for planning permission to help people who are building their own houses, which means they are not depending on the State and also helps address inflation costs? Why can we not reintroduce that? Just to show the inflation costs we have at the moment for housing, it cost €121 per square foot in 2021. At the time, a 2,000 sq. ft house cost €240,000, plus VAT for the Government at €32,400. That same house today will cost €200 per square foot, meaning that the same house costs €400,000 and the Government gets €54,000 in VAT directly from that. Why are we not giving something back to people who are building their own houses?

The cap for the help to buy scheme is too low at €450,000. Most of the houses have moved past that and the people who were put on the help to buy scheme have gone far past that. Someone might build a house tomorrow and pay the builder €400,000. That person might get a valuation on the house and a valuer could value it at €550,000 because the people next door sold their house at €550,000. It is done on valuation and the help to buy scheme does not help those people.

Regarding infrastructure, when will the Government audit Uisce Éireann? I have been in construction all of my life and we visit plants to look at them. Let us consider the running costs of the Uisce Éireann plants over the past five years. Some of these plants have not been maintained. Its electricity costs have increased because it has not replaced aerators in the system. As there has been no maintenance, electricity costs are rising. Uisce Éireann is coming to the Government cap in hand claiming it has no money because the costs have gone out of control. It is deliberately not maintaining some plants. It has them overrun to fool the Government.

I invite the Minister to come down to visit any plant he wants. We will look at them to see what has happened over the four or five years Uisce Éireann has been running them and see where it is not telling the Government the truth and looking for extra money. I want value for money from Uisce Éireann. If it can be done in other European countries and projects can be delivered there for half the price they are delivered here, that is a problem. We need to question that to make sure the money the Government invests in housing goes further, and then we can get delivery that helps the Government and helps the people I represent as well. That is what I want from the Minister, so I need his help.

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