Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)

This is the tenth budget I have had the opportunity to respond to as the Sinn Féin spokesperson on housing. In every single year, the Minister for housing presents a budget and tells us it will address and improve the housing situation across the State. In the 12 months that follow, house prices, rents and homelessness rise, and social and affordable housing targets that are too low to begin with are not met. Of the ten budgets I have digested since first being elected to the Dáil, in respect of housing, this is by far the worst, There is no increase in social housing, affordable rental or affordable purchase targets, and no new measures to prevent singles and families from falling into homelessness. At a time of rising social housing need and homelessness, that is unforgivable. At a time of a growing affordability crisis and so many young people being forced to emigrate, it is simply incomprehensible.

The Government's promise to progressively increase the renter's tax credit has been broken. That is no surprise, but the Government is about to introduce legislation to allow landlords to increase rents by even greater margins, which means whatever tax credit it gives renters will go straight into the pockets of landlords and they will be no better off. In fact, along with changes it has made to apartment design standards, the Government is saying to renters, from Fianna Fáil's and Fine Gael's point of view, that all they are offering are smaller, darker and more expensive apartments into the future.

The only new policy in this document from a housing point of view is a massive tax cut to apartment builders. Over the next two years, over €500 million will be spent on apartments that are already under construction and already have buyers. That is not activation; that is pure stupidity. It is a waste of money that could be used to deliver genuinely affordable homes for working people. There are no supports for the struggling small- and medium-sized builder-developer sector to build more good-quality homes in every county in the country for working people to buy.

In our alternative budget, Sinn Féin set out a different approach. It was one that would have doubled investment in the delivery of social and affordable homes, activated the SME builder-developer sector with real supports, protected renters with a ban on rent increases and a refundable tax credit up to €2,500 a year, and introduced an emergency package of measures for people at risk of, or in, homelessness to prevent them from becoming homeless or to get them out of emergency accommodation more quickly. Of course, the Government ignored those alternatives. What that tells me is it is not prioritising housing or homelessness. It has been criticised yesterday and today by leading organisations fighting the scourge of homelessness in our society. The only conclusion I can draw from this budget is that the Government's priority is big developers and big investors because they are the only people benefiting from the measures the Minister of State has just announced on the floor.

See this speech in context