Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This is the last day ahead of the budget, which is to be announced next Tuesday, on which we will have an Order of Business. It would, be remiss of me, therefore, not to mention some elements of the budget and the arithmetic being used. We had a welcome debate with the Minister of State, Deputy Simon Harris, on the budget and the latitude within the European fiscal framework, with which Ireland has to contend. Depending on whether one is listening to the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council or the Department of Finance, the figure is somewhere between €1.2 billion and €1.5 billion. It, therefore, comes down to choices.

The country is experiencing a number of crises. We have all received representations from individuals who are either homeless or living in accommodation which is inappropriate for raising a family. Today the biggest crisis is that people cannot afford to buy a house or are living in hotel accommodation. That is an indictment of our times and an issue which must be tackled. Unfortunately, this morning we read in the national media that the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government is considering bailing out developers in the budget by way of a differential for those developers who sell below market price where they have a certain number of units to sell. Bailing out developers in Dublin or across the country would be a crying shame and akin to bailing out bondholders. It would have huge economic consequences for the housing market, ultimately lead to pricing individuals out of the market and have other negative knock-on consequences. Apart from the fact that the taxpayer would be paying for it, it would have a ripple effect on the housing market. That would be the wrong road to go down and I call on the Minister for Finance to resist any such attempt.

We need to provide houses, but that can be done through a social housing budget which would allow people to gain access to a local authority house. When the Government took office in 2011, the social housing budget for local authorities was €1 billion. At the end of last year, it was approximately €500 million. A capital programme has been announced, but it is taking much too long to roll it out and make housing available. It would be better for the Government to free up some NAMA properties and make them available to individuals in need of housing.This budget is about choice; the choice to support those who are less well-off versus those who are on higher incomes. We know that only 21.5% of those who earn a salary earn above €50,000. This means that 79% of workers earn below €50,000 with 26% earning below €15,000. We need to recognise these figures in budget 2015 and that it is not all about protecting the sheltered or those who are better off. It is middle Ireland and those who are less well-off who need to be protected in this budget. I hope that when Members of this House scrutinise the budget it will stand up to that scrutiny. According to leaked reports I believe that the budget will not stand up to the scrutiny, even though there is the fiscal latitude to do so. It comes down to choices and on Tuesday, 13 October we will see what the Labour Party influence is on the budget but I would hesitate to say that it would be a positive influence.

This morning I was alarmed that a Labour Party Minister for the environment could stand over a policy which would bail out developers. A party which criticised other parties for supporting developers in the past is now going down the road of providing taxpayers' money to bail out developers and this is the wrong road. It is the wrong way to go and I believe it will lead to major consequences in our housing supply chain in the coming years.