Finance Bill 2025 [Certified Money Bill]: Committee Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2025-12-09
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Mary Fitzpatrick (FF), Industrial and Commercial Panel

This is an important issue and the record of the House is very important on the subject of housing in particular. It is something that every Member has as their number one priority. Having access to a home that is adequate to a person's needs and is affordable and secure is a basic human right. Most of us agree on this. There is a lot of misinformation being shared today. To suggest the Bill is slanted entirely in favour of one section of society is a misrepresentation of the facts. Next year there will be more than €11 billion of taxpayers' money invested in housing alone. It has been suggested that this tax break will deliver €1.5 billion over five years but in one year alone €11 billion will be invested in housing.
The proof that it goes to delivering housing for people and addressing the housing need in our country can be seen from the past four years, when more than 137,000 homes were built and one in every three was social and affordable housing. This term a minimum of 300,000 homes will be built and one in every two will be social and affordable housing. To try to present the budget or the Finance Bill as being designed entirely to support one type of housing is factually a misrepresentation.
When development levies were being waived, which facilitated the commencement of tens of thousands of homes, the Opposition opposed it. When water connection charges were refunded the Opposition opposed it. The €30,000 tax refund that first-time buyers received to make it viable for them, not for big developers or fat cat speculators but for people like our children and our young adults who want to buy their own homes, was something the Opposition also opposed. The renter's tax credit is in place as is the first homes scheme. There is not one silver bullet to fix our housing crisis. If there was, we would have used it already. Everything that can be done is being done and this is one of the measures. For this reason we will support it.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2025-12-09/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:26+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-09