Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Before I commence, I extend my condolences and sympathies to the friends and family of a woman who was killed in a hit-and-run yesterday evening on Phibsborough Road. I appeal to anyone who was in the Phibsborough area to contact Garda with information. It is very sad.

We will have the budget next week. Yesterday, the largest Opposition party published its version of a budget. I will speak to the issues of housing and homeownership. Sinn Féin’s alternative budget is alarming for renters, first-time buyers and anyone who wants to own his or her own home. It is proposing to double the stamp duty on the purchase of any new property.It proposes to scrap the €30,000 tax refund that first-time buyers can get from taxes they paid to use as a deposit to buy their own home. It proposes to scrap the first home equity scheme. It states in its own document that house prices are rising and it knows that the cost of construction has risen by more than 37%, yet it wants to scrap it and stop the State from providing people with up to €100,000 of equity to buy their own homes. It is promising to scrap grants that allow people to turn vacant and derelict properties into homes. It proposes to scrap the vacant property grant of €50,000 and the derelict property grant of €70,000.

I live in Dublin Central, a constituency represented by the leader of Sinn Féin. I go out canvassing with our local and European parliamentary election candidates. A chilling element that is really upsetting people in my constituency, in which there are a lot of local authority housing and Dublin City Council tenants, is Sinn Féin's proposal in its alternative budget to somehow persuade people 55 years and over to surrender their homes if they have a spare bedroom and move into prefabricated homes in inner-city infill sites. I spoke to a man yesterday who lives in a modest Dublin City Council two-bedroom home. He is the third generation to live in that house and has significant medical conditions. Relatives stay in the spare bedroom from time to time. His question to me was what methods will Sinn Féin use to persuade him to give up the house. It is a real question being asked by elderly people, and not all of them are elderly. You only have to be 56 according to the Sinn Féin budget proposal. I am not far off it. It proposes to use emergency powers to persuade people to surrender their homes. I would like the Deputy Leader to write to the leader of Sinn Féin, the Deputy in Dublin Central, to ask her to explain what methods Sinn Féin will use to persuade people aged 55 years and over to surrender their homes.