Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Three and a half minutes.

I will mention a few things that jumped out at me today. The mortgage interest tax relief is to be welcomed but I am concerned that the upper limit is €500,000. Where we live - the Minister of State knows it, it is not far from her constituency - two-bedroom houses are currently being sold for €555,000. I know the relief is aimed at those on tracker mortgages to an extent but we need to look at the upper limit to help those who have mortgages of slightly more than €500,000. That is one of the issues I have.

There is a huge problem with the residential zoned land tax. An inner city factory in west Dublin employs 75 people and the land it sits on is zoned residential. The owners have been told they are about to be hit for tax of approximately €200,000 because the land is zoned as residential. The factory has been there for about 100 years. It has been run by three generations of a family. It makes carpet and seat coverings for aircraft all over the world. It has another factory in Donegal. We need to look at that. The Taoiseach mentioned the issue when he made a statement to the Seanad a few days ago. We cannot drive employers out of an area simply because we did not take it into account when we zoned the land.

I will have more to say to the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform when it comes to the Defence Forces but today's Budget Statement is devastating.