Ní aontaím leis an Teachta in aon chor. Rinne an Rialtas an-chuid i mbuiséad na seachtaine seo caite, go háirithe chun cabhair agus tacaíocht a thabhairt do dhaoine a bhfuil ag fulaingt faoi láthair. Admhaím go bhfuil costais mhaireachtála, go háirithe ó thaobh cúrsaí bia de, ag dul in airde. Thug an méid a rinneamar cabhair agus tacaíocht do na daoine is boichte agus na daoine atá ar na hioncaim is ísle sa tír. Níl aon amhras ach go ndearnamar sin. When we look at the budget across the board, it focused on those on the lowest incomes and also on investing in public services and infrastructure. All of us in society benefit from investment in infrastructure, in education services and special education services, in health services and in more housing. Housing is the biggest single issue facing us, and the budget puts extraordinary resources into housing on top of what was provided in the national development plan. Most young people, irrespective of where they are in the income brackets, want either to be able to afford a house to buy or to rent or, if their incomes are within a certain bracket, to get a social house. We provided enough resources for over 10,000 social houses to be built next year and additional social houses to be leased or acquired. That is the point I am making. I did not say anybody got it wrong or anything like that. To come back to the ESRI, I would argue its methodology is somewhat flawed-----
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Do we want a serious debate or not? Under the SWITCH model, if we index to inflation, the lowest income deciles benefit substantially more than anybody else, by up to 4% or 5%. If we index to wage growth, it is a different story. I am more into deprivation and consistent poverty-----
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Sorry, in terms of methodology, I am into arresting and dealing with those who are genuinely suffering from deprivation and consistent poverty, rather than the idea of relative poverty, which is a moveable feast, particularly with an economy that has been growing for ten years. We either have serious discussions about these things or we do not. The Deputy just goes herd-like after the latest headline. That is all she does. She latches onto the latest headline and off she goes. I can recall that during the energy crisis, the proposals she came up with would have undermined our financial credibility and would have been a boon to the oil companies and the fossil fuel companies.
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She wanted to underpin them. If we keep on doing energy credits, where is the pressure on the companies?
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The Deputy is suggesting that we keep bailing out the companies-----
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-----and keep underpinning the gouging. If the companies think there is going to be €200, €500 or €1,000 every year, that will get factored in, without question.
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What is important in terms of the energy companies is the more fundamental issue facing the market, which is the methodology by which the European Single Market works in terms of how prices are determined for gas and the margin of pricing or pay-as-clear system. That is the fundamental problem. The Minister has established a national group to look at the regulatory framework governing the pricing of energy. That has to happen in tandem with Europe. The Iberian peninsula did something on this because of the high proportion of renewables in their mix. We need more renewable energy, but in the interim we are totally reliant on the importation of gas - not totally but almost 80%.
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That is one of the fundamental issues because gas sets the price across Europe. That is the reality.
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We know that energy prices in Ireland are high. There are a number of factors. The fundamental factor is the broader regulatory framework that governs the pricing of energy, gas being the issue. Gas sets the price. We are at a disadvantage in that respect, as we are in respect of the dispersed nature of our grid. We have the eighth highest electricity prices in the EU 27 when adjusted for purchasing power parity. That is where we are right now and the Minister has established a national energy affordability task force to deal with this issue and identify-----
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No, the ESRI used a different methodology from the one we used last week in terms of how we utilised the-----
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This is well known.
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The Deputy is clearly not listening. She interrupts all the time, as do her colleagues.
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I always remember the Deputy's intervention during the energy crisis. It was the Liz Truss intervention.
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Sinn Féin copied and pasted the Liz Truss intervention but thanks be to God we did not accept its proposals-----
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-----because look at what happened to Prime Minister Truss and to the markets and everything else in the UK at the time.
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The Government has responded to the Housing Commission. It has been asserted in public discourse that the Government ignored the Housing Commission in respect of the rental market.
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I would argue that the Opposition has ignored the Housing Commission on rents because it clearly pointed to a reform of the rent pressure zones, RPZs. It said they were not fit for purpose and should not be allowed to continue. Once the Government and Minister came forward with reforms of the RPZs, balancing protections by making it full national coverage and other measures, there was a chorus of opposition from the Opposition-----
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-----and a pretence that the Government had not looked at the Housing Commission's report at all. That happened. The bottom line is supply.
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If you continue with eviction bans, rent freezes and all of that, you will depress suply. There is no doubt in my mind about that. If we keep doing judicial reviews, even against guidelines and regulations - the Deputy should not nod; these are the facts - that is paralysing the system. We want to get apartments built - different types, sizes and guidelines. The first resort of public representatives in the Labour Party, and other parties, is to go and do a judicial review, which will delay progress on that front by six or eight months. Everybody has identified the shortage of apartments as a key issue. The Government has moved through reform of the rent pressure zones, through changing the apartment guidelines and through the VAT cut, to try to get to a position where we narrow the viability gap so we get more apartments built. What do we face? We face judicial reviews and I do not think that is right. This is beginning to undermine the democratic voice in here because we are elected to do things and get things done but every step of the way, whether it is a wastewater treatment plant or infrastructure, there are judicial reviews and many of them are politically motivated. From the Government’s perspective, we want supply, more supply and more supply. Housing supply numbers for 2025 in the second quarter, as the Deputy knows, were quite strong for that time of the year. There was a 35% increase year on year on the second quarter in 2024, a 20% increase for the year to date compared to 2024 and they are the strongest second quarter and half yearly figures since 2008.
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That is the bottom line. There is this refusal to acknowledge progress but we need to do much more than that. That is why the Government is doing everything it possibly can to get more houses built, get more apartments built -----
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----- both on the social housing level, affordable housing and generally across the situation and we will continue to do that.
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We brought in the rent credit, which is quite significant in itself and has been in terms of its impact.
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I have. The Deputy has asked a range of questions, to be fair. On the homelessness question, the Minister is taking a different approach to the eviction ban because we believe the eviction ban will damage supply but what we can do in terms of homeless is have a very specific programme and an allocated resource. The Minister received €50 million earlier this year in respect of taking families out of homelessness and allocating social housing in a ring-fenced, specific way.
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The Minister is committed to doing that and he received additional resources in the budget to double down on that and to have a particularly focused programme in respect of children in homelessness. As the Deputy knows, people enter and exit homelessness on an ongoing basis.
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The issue for us is to get families and children out of homelessness as quickly as possible. It is much more complex than has been articulated by the Deputy and others in this House.
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Homelessness is much more complex today, and the Deputy knows that.
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That is why there will also be legislative changes to some aspects of what is going on as well
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First of all, I would reject completely the analysis of the Deputy. We have been listening to a lot of empty rhetoric on the side of the Opposition in respect of housing. As I said earlier, housing supply is not where we want it to be but it is significantly way up on where it was five years ago on an annual basis. In the second quarter of this year, there were very high figures - the highest since 2008. Now they need to be, and we need to get to 50,000 houses. The Deputy's savings plan is not going to do that this year, next year or the year after. Let us not pretend it would. There are factories out there in terms of modern methods of construction. I have visited them. Saying they would create a new factory for modular is not going to change the dial. They are out there. Modern methods of construction is now fully integrated into our house-building operations and we are continuing to work on that because it is an important dimension to housing. The housing action plan will be published, certainly with the next five to six weeks.
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Of course we did not wait for the housing action plan. We have brought in a range of measures since the beginning of the year, most of which the Deputy has opposed, as she opposed most measures in respect of housing from the planning Act right through. This budget allocates significantly more resources again on very substantial State investment in housing - a 20% increase in overall funding to housing. I heard Deputy Bacik talk about it having been "commodified and marketised". In the name of God, it is the State that is investing overwhelming in housing today.
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It is the State is investing across abroad sweep of housing policies. What has to happen is that the State funding has to be balanced by private sector finance. I know the Deputy hates that. The Deputy has an instinctive ideological opposition to that, which I disagree with. Until we get a significant financial investment from the private sector in housing, we are not going to get to 50,000.
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The State cannot sustainably finance on its own the building of 50,000 to 60,000 houses for the next decade, so strategy and policy must reflect the continuance of unprecedented Government investment but complemented and supplemented by private sector investment. That is the clear strategic approach of Government. It is not panic mode or anything of the sort but it is relentless and it is focused. We are not going to be sidetracked by populist short-term declarations, announcements or soundbites that look good. Soundbites do not build houses. I am absolutely committed, along with the Minister and the entire Government, to dealing with the housing issue as a constant priority and that is reflected in the budget. Yes, we did not go down the income tax route or other routes. Why not? It is because we wanted a 20% increase in housing. We wanted a €50 capitation grant for primary schools, which makes a huge difference.
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We want to build infrastructure, water and grid, which are central to housing. That is what enables us to build more houses.
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Water, grid and public transport are the fundamental pieces of infrastructure that make house building possible.
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A total of €4 billion alone in current expenditure is being provided for housing for 2026. This is an increase of €600 million. Key elements of this will go to homeless services-----
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-----to ensure that local authorities can provide emergency accommodation. Well, it has to be done. For God's sake, we have to provide it.
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The Deputy would be very first guy condemning us if we did not.
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There are homeless prevention measures, tenancy sustainment measures and so on, and enabling people to exit emergency accommodation as quickly as possible. We will fund over 5,000 new homes under the social housing current expenditure programme. We continue to support over 40,000 existing homes under the scheme. There is €470 million to support an additional 7,000 new tenancies. At present there are 50,000 tenants. There are significant numbers moving to more permanent social housing. Over 28,000 transfers to other forms of social housing have taken place. Then we have the rental accommodation scheme. In terms of capital, under the NDP well over €7 billion is allocated capital to housing.
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That is not a soundbite or rhetoric. That is unprecedented investment in housing and that is reflected this year as well.
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It is quite interesting that a representative of a far-left party like Deputy Murphy is an advocate for universal credits, which benefit the wealthiest in society as well as everybody else. That is quite an extraordinary contradiction of the viewpoints he often articulates. The Minister has established a national energy affordability task force because there is an issue with energy affordability. That is acknowledged. The Deputy has made the point that he would get rid of the regulatory framework and renationalise our energy system. There is no guarantee that such a renationalisation would deliver cheaper prices. We should not pretend that it would because we have to invest an enormous amount into expanding our grid and making sure it is fit for purpose for a growing economy and a growing population. The population is growing exponentially. We have had extraordinary economic growth over a long period of time. Contrary to most established economic norms, we have managed to maintain or marginally reduce levels of income inequality in this country thanks to our progressive taxation system. Having said that, this has had impacts on other areas. The Minister has met with the companies. We have focused our work on trying to protect those most affected by energy price increases. Addressing energy affordability is key for us. The Deputy said there was nothing in the budget. Historically, a VAT rate of 13.5% has been applied to gas and electricity. Since 2022, we have reduced that to 9%. Budget 2026 extended this reduction to the end of 2030. If we had not done that, it would have meant significant increases in the price of electricity and gas. The fuel allowance has gone up to €38 per week, an increase of more than 15%. This will provide an additional €140 to more than 460,000 recipients during the annual fuel allowance season. That payment has been extended and expanded to include those in receipt of the working family payment. Targeting our resources at those most in need makes sense. In addition, our retrofitting programme has been quite impactful, reducing many households' energy bills. More than €500 million has been allocated for residential and community energy schemes. Some €280 million has been allocated to the warmer homes scheme in particular. This provides free retrofits to households in energy poverty. In 2024, this facilitated nearly 8,000 energy upgrades in low-income households. During the height of the energy crisis, we did, as the Deputy mentioned, provide energy credits but, to maintain sustainable public finances, it makes sense to target resources at those who would be most impacted through retrofitting and warmer homes programmes. The Minister is working with the companies to make sure that no one is cut off and that hardship funds are in place to help people who could get into difficulty as a result of increased energy prices.
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That is not true.
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We will not be introducing price controls. They failed in the past and would fail again. In terms of child poverty, consistent poverty is the key metric, not relative poverty. The Deputy did not qualify which he was talking about.
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Consistent poverty is what we have to deal with. Our child poverty programme in the budget was very significant, the highest in a very long time. The once-off payments were just that, for two years in a row and before that. During the Covid pandemic and the energy crisis, we had to intervene. They not sustainable over the decade and they cannot just keep going on. We would not have sustainable public finances if we went down that route. Equally, it is arguable that very wealthy people do not need an energy credit. The Deputy is arguing that they do. I find that incredible.
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We do tax them. We have a very progressive tax system-----
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-----which basically means income inequality has reduced despite very significant, strong economic growth. We believe in enterprise; the Deputy does not. He has a broader view of how markets and economies should run-----
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-----and that is fundamental to every specific proposal he introduces on a given issue in here.
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It has to be seen in the round in terms of what kind of society we want.
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I respectfully suggest that the people do not quite want the society the Deputy advocates.
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