Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)

Let us look at what the Ministers have presented here today. This €9.4 billion budget package is a rip-off. There is nothing in this budget for working people and families. It ends energy credit supports, increases income taxes in real terms and hikes student fees. At the same time, this budget has one of the biggest tax packages in history, giving away lavish tax cuts to the richest in our society. Instead, the Government could be guaranteeing that working people and families had access to affordable housing, groceries and childcare. That would be the sign of a strong and functioning economy. It is increasing costs on workers and families while refusing to provide the supports they need and continuing to waste their tax money. From bike shelters to security huts that cost more than homes to a children's hospital, still not delivered and costing more and more with every passing month, the wastage of public money is seen across every Department. This includes the colossal sums being spent on a dysfunctional IPAS system, a system that has seen costs soar from the millions of euro to the hundreds of millions and into the billions, enriching a new crony class at the expense of local communities and the taxpayers whom the Government has kicked in the teeth with today's budget.

Housing is the biggest crisis facing all families across the State. The Government continually insists that housing is its number one priority but its actions speak far louder than words. Its first action after feathering its nest was to raise rents. In the middle of a housing emergency, that is absolutely unforgivable. At times, I really wonder if it is actually trying to make this housing crisis worse. I have been an elected representative for 11 years and I have never seen it as bad as I see it today. If that is what the Government's aim is, then it is actually succeeding, so maith sibh ar sin. Every year, this crisis gets worse under the policies and budgetary decisions that it implements. Before the general election, it was hell bent telling us that it would hit the target of 40,000 houses last year, knowing fine well from information that was given to it that this target would be missed. The Central Bank predicts that it will continue to miss housing targets for the next three years. Not only are the targets not being met, but there is no real ambition in the targets that it set and there is no increase in affordable or social housing targets today.

The Government's Housing Commission has acknowledged that only a radical strategic reset of housing policy will work, but what does this budget deliver? It delivers more of the same policy solutions that have worsened the housing crisis, a pathetic package of ineffective tax cuts and minor regulatory changes that waste millions of euro of public money. Our alternative budget and housing strategy offer real ambition and investment to arrest the housing crisis. They detail a concrete plan for the radical reset of housing policy so desperately needed. What we needed from the Ministers today was an increase in affordable and social homes so that, finally, people could access secure, affordable accommodation. What we and renters needed was a three-year ban on rent increases so that the renter's tax credit did not continue to be inflationary.

Instead, the Government's entire housing policy is written with and for landlords and developers. It has given landlords free rein to set rent prices. It has slashed the design standards for apartments and is now cutting tax on apartments. These changes are only creating one kind of home: built-to-rent apartment blocks with flats that are smaller, darker and increasingly more expensive. These high-density, high-cost and low-quality blocks of apartments owned by international investment funds are a symptom of a broken housing system. They are the manifestation of a rudimentary understanding of economics where housing delivery is only viewed in terms of supply and demand, and housing is now a financial asset, not a home.

People having a home of their own should not be a luxury; it should be a fundamental human right. We need good-quality, secure and affordable homes that meet people's needs in terms of size, space, light, accessibility and proximity to work. We desperately need a balanced housing system, one with an adequate number of social and affordable homes alongside a private rental sector and home ownership within reach of working people. The Government should be building enough public homes to meet the need for social and affordable housing. It should be freezing rents for three years alongside increasing renters' tax relief. It should activate the small- and medium-sized builder-developer sector to deliver more quality homes for working people to buy at moderate prices. That is what a sound economy is built on.

Homelessness is at shocking levels. There are 5,000 children in homelessness and neither of the Ministers mentioned homelessness in his speech today.

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