Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Some 500 houses will be built or renovated in local authority estates this year. That is welcome but it is necessary because any of us who walk into local authority housing estates will know that many of them are boarded up waiting for funding. I suspect those targeted 500 houses will not even cover the number of houses boarded up throughout the country.

An important point was raised by the leader of my party in the Seanad yesterday. Some €2 billion in finances is being allocated by NAMA to purchasers of commercial property in this country. Why are we giving them a break? Why do we not give the ordinary homeowner a break? At the time this is being done the Government is fiddling around with local authority houses and abolishing the mortgage interest supplement. That is a dichotomy that is at the heart of matters. I remind the Labour Party Members that this a Fine Gael budget because Fine Gael has got everything that it wants. It got the €3.1 billion, and congratulations to Fine Gael on that-----