Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for presenting the Finance Bill to us. It has now been six weeks since the budget announcement and one week since the Finance Bill was passed by the Dáil, and the question of whose budget it was still remains.

The twists and turns of Fianna Fáil would have political scientists scratching their heads. Initially, it claimed credit for a tax spend and cut ratio of 2:1, and then promptly sat back and abstained. Sinn Féin, in the weeks leading up to the budget, researched, debated and costed an alternative budget. There were tough decisions to make. Fianna Fáil produced a budget document in which, as was said in the House, the only figures were the page numbers.

In order to improve the lives of citizens, alternatives must be put forward. When we oppose a measure in the Bill we do so because we believe that will help to ease the crisis in our services, begin to solve the housing crisis or help those households that are just about managing.

In the intervening period since the budget was announced, there has been a report from the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council criticising the cut in the solid source of taxation that is the USC. There has also been an amending of the mortgage rules by the Central Bank which has effectively rendered the help to buy scheme in the Bill even more useless and unnecessary.The cut to the USC, as outlined in section 2, features only because Fine Gael can claim it fulfilled at least part of its pre-election promise. The €330 million to be cut from the USC is the start of a process that has been exposed by the Department of Finance itself as regressive and of greatest benefit to the wealthiest. It narrows the tax base at a time when increased investment in public services will be needed. Fianna Fáil's manifesto called for the abolition of the USC for 90% of taxpayers. There was nothing in its document at budget time that indicated a change. It dodged the question in the Dáil vote. I welcome the opportunity for Fianna Fáil to clarify its position in the Seanad, where more considered and detailed debate is meant to take place.

The help-to-buy scheme in section 9 was the stand-out measure of the Finance Bill. From the outset, it looked dodgy. The Minister was not able to state unequivocally whether the Central Bank had any issues with the scheme. The only thing the Governor of the Central Bank was actually consulted about was a technical issue as to whether the tax rebate to be provided could be used as part of the deposit under the mortgage lending rules. As it stands, this section will benefit only the builders. The latest rule changes by the Central Bank now mean that a deposit of only 10% is now required for first-time buyers. The Government's stated aim was to help first-time buyers to reach the deposit required to buy a house. If the Government proceeds with this measure, it will effectively reduce that rate down to 5%. This will bring us dangerously close to the 100% mortgages offered on properties that have no guarantee of maintaining their value. This would be to repeat one of the major mistakes of recent years, ignoring much of what we learned from the banking inquiry around this issue.

The measure in section 10 is another clear sign that this Bill is another step in a return to the failed policies of boom and bust. The Taoiseach publicly slapped down a fellow Minister's suggestion of tax breaks for returning exiles. There is not much different in the extension of the SARP section and there was not enough said in the Dáil to convince my party other than that this is a tax break for wealthy individuals with no link to job creation. Likewise, the CAT changes are short-sighted and will benefit a small few the most. When we consider the narrow choices available to us because of the fiscal rules, we note there is no way we should be spending that on reducing CAT thresholds. Likewise, the cuts in DIRT are just not necessary at this point and mean that schools and hospitals will go with a little less. That is the type of choice we had to make and the Government made the wrong one.

I welcome some measures, such as the extension of the home renovation incentive and particularly the progress made on cracking down on loopholes that section 110 companies and property funds have been abusing. Much progress has been made but, in our view, there is still work to be done. Take, for example, the capital gains tax loophole. Fundamentally, there is a need for massive expenditure in public services, not on developer-friendly measures and face-saving tax cuts to fulfil silly and rushed pre-election promises. That is where this Finance Bill fails miserably. It harks back to the bad old days of Fianna Fáil and endless reckless indulgence in property tax breaks while promising spending based on volatile sources. Unlike others, Sinn Féin is opposed to this Bill. It is not agnostic about it. It puts us on a track towards another crash and in no way prepares us for the challenges coming down the track.