Rory Hearne (Dublin North-West, Social Democrats)

I completely back my colleague, Deputy O' Callaghan. The Minister talked about politics of the lowest kind. Politics of the lowest kind is to allow over 5,000 children to be homeless every single year and to vote, year after year, against implementing an eviction ban. The Minister is a Minister of homelessness. He stands over all the things he been done in this country, all the great development, but year after year, thousands of children and their families are made homeless, and many of them are linked with domestic violence. The Government has forced families who have been in situations of domestic violence into homelessness because of its failure to put in place an eviction ban, and its failure to take the homelessness crisis seriously. The Minister put it to my colleague that it is about the politics of the lowest kind when he makes a very clear point. The Minister made decisions and had priorities, one of which was to prioritise animal welfare over domestic violence, just as he prioritised VAT cuts for developers, the burger barons and the hoteliers, over people who are in poverty. The Minister made those decisions.

To try to heckle my colleague over that decision is the real politics of the lowest kind. Fine Gael's record of 14 years in government is that we have over 5,000 children homeless. The Minister talks about failure and politics of the lowest kind but that is the politics of the lowest kind. Fine Gael used to claim that it was the party of fiscal prudence and sound financial management. However, the budget has done the very thing that Fine Gael says it is not about. What is has done is to narrow the country's tax base by over €1.2 billion. Next year, the combined costs of the VAT cut to developers and the VAT cut to the retail and hospitality sectors combined will be almost €1.2 billion. Over the lifetime of the Government, that will be almost €5 billion of tax cuts to those who clearly do not need them. It is one of the most fiscally irresponsible acts because there is no requirement around affordability of housing. There is no requirement for those VAT cuts to be passed on in terms of cheaper goods or cheaper housing.

It is also what we describe in economics as an opportunity cost because it affects us twice. We reduce the tax revenue, as the Government is doing, which is a waste of public funding, but it is the opportunity cost of the loss of other potentials and what we could be doing with that €5 billion. We could be using it to fund social and affordable housing delivery. We could be using it to develop public childcare. We could be using it to develop public transport. Instead, public money is being given to wealthy foreign funds which are the main shareholders of the big developers. Take Glenveagh, for example. Look at its share price at the moment and at who its main shareholders are. Does the Minister know who the main shareholder of Glenveagh is? It is a company called Teleios Capital. I was not familiar with it but it is a Swiss hedge fund. The second biggest owner of shares in Glenveagh is Fidelity Investments, a US-based fund. The third biggest owner of shares in Glenveagh is the UK-based Helikon Investments. These funds are gaining from the VAT cut to developers. This is where the profits are going. These foreign wealth funds have benefitted more from the budget than ordinary families have.

Regarding the hikes in the price of groceries, people are struggling to pay for food but the Government will not push for transparency on the profit gouging that is going on in food and energy prices. The Government voted down our developer profits transparency legislation.

The Government is all talk, waffle, hand wringing and crocodile tears of concern but there is no actual action when it comes to the cost of living and the housing crisis. There is plenty of Government action, however, for the wealth funds, the corporate landlords, the big fast food chains, and developers. The Government ignored the Social Democrats' proposals to help people struggling with the cost-of living-crisis, for example, our proposal to introduce energy credits worth €400 targeted at households in the lowest 40% of incomes. It ignored our proposals to introduce a weekly cost-of-disability payment, to remove the means test on carers, to cut childcare fees and student fees, to introduce a sports and activity payment for all children, and to introduce a second tier of child benefit.

Yesterday, I visited the Focus Ireland homeless services in Dublin city. What they told me, which is part of why I am so frustrated and angry at the Minister's response, was that families in this country were still sleeping in Garda stations. They are sleeping in cars and tents and on couches. The family homelessness crisis in this country is worse than it has ever been and what do we see from this Government? We see no new ideas, no Housing First for homeless families and no eviction ban, just waffle about supply and demand. The Government is out of touch when it comes to ideas and it is also out of touch when it comes to any sense of empathy or care regarding what is being done to children and families in homelessness in this country.

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