John McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am the last Senator to speak on this debate, which has been going on for an hour and a half. I have to start by commending Senators Warfield, Keoghan and Craughwell. Out of 19 Opposition Senators, three turned up. If this budget was as bad as Senator Warfield would have us believe, I guarantee all 18 Opposition Senators would be in here shouting and screaming for their two-minute social media clips, but they are not. Perhaps there will be a flood of them in the next two or three minutes before I finish and they will come in and make their points known. Perhaps there will be a flood of Opposition Senators for this debate and, with no disrespect to the Minister of State, perhaps there will be a flood of Opposition Senators for the next Minister. Perhaps they are in their offices as we speak, honing the important point they are going to make against this budget - perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. I again commend Senators Warfield, Keoghan and Craughwell on bothering to show up to the Seanad today, on the day of the budget, to discuss the budget. It is a pity that their 16 other colleagues did not do the same.

Let us discuss the differences between us. Home ownership is a very important thing. I am 32 years old and all of my friends are in the process of buying homes, trying to buy homes or are saving money to buy homes. It is tough; no one is saying it is not. I grew up in Dundalk, a town I love, and see houses being built left, right and centre. I talk to estate agents who tell me they have had more first-time buyers than ever before. This is not anecdotal and me coming in here exaggerating or making something up. This is borne out in the results. In this country, every week 400 people are buying their first homes. Since this day last year, when we all spoke about budget 2023, 30,500 new homes have been built. There have been 11,630 new social homes, of which 9,300 are already under construction. They are the facts in black and white. People can see this with their own eyes when they walk outside and look at the construction that is happening in this country.

I listened to the Minister of State on RTÉ this morning and I am paraphrasing what she said. One of the key things Sinn Féin wants to do is to get rid of the Croí Cónaithe scheme. I have a constituency office that is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday. We deal with many people in Dundalk and elsewhere in County Louth . I have assisted with at least ten to 15 applications in respect of that scheme. People are taking vacant houses off the market, breathing life and love into them and returning them to a habitable state. If I am lucky enough to be able to do so, the next six months I will apply to Louth County Council for the scheme. It is exactly the type of grant we need. Sinn Féin proposes to abolish it. As the Minister of State said on RTÉ, there is no space in the Sinn Féin alternative budget for people like me or my generation who want to buy their own home. Homeownership is a dirty word as far as that party is concerned.

Imagine the gall of wanting to work hard in life and try to save money on an affordable income to buy a house. What is so wrong with that? They are exactly the type of people that will be the first on the guillotine if Sinn Féin is ever to get into power in this House. The facts are borne out here. It is here in black and white. Sinn Féin wants to abolish the help-to-buy scheme, which would make it harder for people to get a deposit to buy a house. Last year, the scheme helped 42,000 first-time buyers in this country, but Sinn Féin wants to abolish it. Doubling stamp duty from 1% to 2% on all purchases between €70,000 and €1 million would be another increase in tax on people who are buying homes.

As I said, abolishing the first homes scheme will make homes more expensive because it would reduce the State help with an equity share. That scheme has helped more than 600 families while 2,500 applications have been approved. I am not talking about generics, hyperbole or want the man on the street said to me. Rather, I am speaking of cold, hard budgetary facts. Other people have done the same. Perhaps the other 16 Opposition Senators would bother turning up for the rest of the debate. Let us hear some of their facts.