Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)

This budget is a budget for property developers and big American fast food conglomerates. In fact, the only PAYE worker who benefits from this is Ronald McDonald. Student fees are up by €500, with no commitment to €200 childcare or a public childcare scheme and no second tier of child benefit. In their speeches, neither the Minister for Finance nor the Minister for public expenditure cared to mention homelessness. That is shameful. In fact, homeless organisations have said that they are invisible with regard to budget 2026.

The measures announced in the budget on housing are all aimed at institutional investors and landlords. Where is the clear commitment to additional funding for homeless prevention measures? It does not exist. In fact, the headline measure with regard to homelessness in budget 2026 refers to €50 million to construct temporary accommodation or hostels. That shows the extent to which this Government has given up the ghost when it comes to homelessness. How depressing. We have had a 25% increase in homelessness in the last year and local authorities simply cannot cope. In fact, in my own constituency office, I cannot cope. I have tens of people coming to me every week about housing and I have absolutely nothing to tell them. In 2024, just 5% of the homeless budget was spent on category 1 homeless prevention. In our alternative budget, we proposed fully costed measures with a 15% funding increase for homeless services targeted specifically at prevention measures.

The fact of the matter is that politics is about choices and this Government has chosen institutional investors and big developers over ordinary working people, renters, struggling first-time buyers and those in or at risk of homelessness.

I will quote some analysis from the Parliamentary Budget Office, particularly with regard to the measures introduced in respect of VAT on new-build apartments. The PBO is concerned about the strength of the evidence used to support some of these decisions, and rightly so. It says: "Great care would be needed in designing such a policy to prevent inappropriate exploitation of such a measure by the construction sector." It went on to say, in respect of applying differing rates of VAT to different types of housing:

Revenue had indicated that this differentiated approach would be difficult to administer and could lead to accidental or fraudulent underpayments of VAT, where an underpayment of VAT may arise, for example, in the construction of an apartment block ... for instance, [when the apartment block is] initially ... purely residential in order to avail of ... [the] 9%, and then subsequently become[s] ... mixed-use [...] Revenue believe that administering and monitoring the measure would be difficult and could result in fraudulent behaviour.

Most significantly, it stated that the Department highlighted that “there is no obligation for a builder to pass on any VAT reduction.” This is where the crux of the problem is. This measure has been applied to apartments that have already been built but not sold, which will have a significant cost for the Exchequer but absolutely no effect on supply. It is very clear to me why the Government is doing this. It is doing it because it is the latest thing institutional investors and big corporate landlords want. We know this because the lobbying register tells us so. Mr. Pat Farrell, the CEO of Irish Institutional Property, a former Fianna Fáil Senator, has been in to Government Buildings at least ten times since January - ten times that we know of. It is shameful for this Government to spend €563 million on a direct transfer of wealth to property developers and institutional investors. It is a whopper of a giveaway with absolutely no caveats around affordability or supply. At a time when we have 220,000 children in consistent poverty, 5,000 children are homeless and 300,000 people are in arrears with their energy bills, the Government is spending over €500 billion to subsidise developers it already subsidises through Project Tosaigh, croí cónaithe cities and other schemes.

On defective concrete, an issue that has devastated many communities around the country, we have called for funding for the establishment of a building standards regulator and a 10% increase in defective concrete block remediation grants. These apartment changes the Government has introduced will save a tiny €18,000 on a €500,000 apartment and will not deliver a single apartment extra for the people I represent in Limerick.

There is also no mention of UHL in this budget. The additional beds announced fall short of what is required. We are short 600 in the mid-west. We urgently need the Government to make a decision on the HIQA review and to commit to a model 3 hospital in Limerick.

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