Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

How do I follow that? I thank the 19 Senators who spoke for raising multiple issues.

Senator Catherine Ardagh raised the important issue of housing and first-time buyers. We all agree with her on the importance of getting first-time buyers into the market. It is a question of having a combination of supply and affordability. The housing strategy put forward by the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, Deputy Simon Coveney, includes a range of measures. No single solution will work on its own. I hope the Budget Statement next week will be the catalyst in allowing first-time buyers to become homeowners.

I thank Senator Rose Conway-Walsh for the budgetary lesson. I was listening to her. However, I point out to her that, based on her alternative budget, hers is a party of taxation; it is a high tax party. She is proposing new taxes in the order of €1 billion. Her party is proposing a third rate of income tax that would put the rate of tax over 50% if PRSI and the universal social charge are included. To be fair to the Senator, I do not know whether she was part of it.