John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

I welcome a number of the measures contained in the budget, which have been highlighted by the Minister of State. I welcome the changes in services to people with disabilities. The Minister of State referred to yesterday's debate in this House on decentralisation. Last year, decentralisation was the budget. I listened today to hear what its equivalent would be in this year's budget.

There are two issues over which the Government appears to be gloating. I noticed the expression on the face of the Minister of State as the Minister for Finance announced the stamp duty relief for first time house buyers. This is the first time the Government or its immediate predecessor has done anything to improve the lot of people who are buying houses. After an eight year wait, perhaps we should applaud the Government for realising there is a disastrous problem in this area. However, as Deputy Richard Bruton said in the Dáil, eight years is too long to wait for change. The Government should not pat itself on the back to the extent it is. In my part of the world one would expect to pay approximately €250,000 for a second hand home.

The savings for someone buying such a house will be in the region of €7,000, which is twice the first-time buyer's grant that was removed by the Government some years ago in its previous attempt to do something for people trying to buy a house. If people buy a second-hand home in County Kilkenny they will have to renovate it and may wish to extend it, so they will end up paying significant charges as a result of development levies imposed by local authorities. Therefore, most of what the Government is providing in relief in today's budget on stamp duty will be gobbled up.

While it is perhaps significant, optically, that the Government seems to be acknowledging the fact that there is a problem in that area, what it has done is insignificant. As Deputy Richard Bruton rightly pointed out in the Lower House, in the context of Dublin, where the average cost of second-hand homes is greater than the exemption limit, it will have a much more negligible impact than elsewhere. The Government has acknowledged the difficulty so I will give it a star, albeit for slow learning in that area.

The other budgetary provision in which Government Members in the Dáil appeared to take particular pleasure was the removal from the tax net of those on the minimum wage. As Deputy Richard Bruton correctly pointed out, however, this is another con job because in the middle of next year they will be back in the tax net when the minimum wage is increased again. While visually it looks fantastic that these people have been removed from the tax net — we all agree they should be — in a few months they will be back in the net, so what was achieved today will count for nothing.