To be clear, I am not specifically requesting that the Minister introduce any change to the tax code in this regard. I have never requested that. That is not what my question seeks to do. Thankfully, the main lenders in the market have held off raising their variable mortgage interest rates to date, but I think there is a certain inevitability that those rates will rise over the coming period. Figures released by the Central Bank yesterday show that the average rate for new mortgages fell by six basis points compar…

I think it is inevitable that the main banks will pass on the likely increases in the ECB rate over the coming period. The perverse reality is that the environment we are in at the moment, as interest rates go up, means that bank profitability will go up as well. I would like the Government to send a signal, and this House should send a signal, that banks should, given the climate at the moment, absorb as many of these interest rate rises as they possibly can and avoid passing them on to variable-rate mortgage cust…

For full-time workers on the national minimum wage, a significant portion of the 80 cent an hour increase they will receive in July will be swallowed up. In the budget, the Government failed to adjust the relevant PRSI bands to account for the increase and to ensure the full increase would go into the pockets of those who benefit from the national minimum wage increase. There are no Committee Stage amendments to the Finance Bill to rectify this problem, although it may be addressed in, for example, the social welfa…

That would be appreciated. It is something we intend to raise in the context of the Finance Bill and probably more appropriately, the social welfare Bill. Our own analysis, which has been confirmed by the Parliamentary Budget Office, shows that in terms of the national minimum wage, a worst-case scenario could see many full-time workers on the minimum wage lose more than 30% of the 80 cent per hour increase because no adaptation is being made with regard to the PRSI threshold. That diverges from what policy has bee…

I will put on record, and various respective think tanks have said it as well, that PRSI parameters will remain unchanged, and that will increase the PRSI burden on a full-time minimum wage worker. The threshold for those earning below €424 is not changing. There will, therefore, be an impact. More than 30% of the increase will be swallowed up because the kinds of PRSI adjustments that ought to be made are not being made. We will continue to argue for that. That is frankly an injustice given that we know the bottom…

I am pleased to speak on behalf of the Labour Party on this important Bill. Members will be more pleased to hear that I will not use my full 20 minutes. I will keep to the standard set by previous speakers. As the Minister of State mentioned in his contribution, I was involved in amending the Credit Guarantee Act 2012. The work I did was in 2015. The beauty of the parent legislation, if I can describe it as such, is that it is capable of being amended to address issues facing our economy from time to time as they a…

The facts are clear. One year on from the publication of Housing for All, the Government's signature plan is failing and failing abjectly. The Minister of State might think that as an Opposition Member that I would take some pleasure in reminding the Government of that, but I do not because we need a plan that works. We need a housing plan for all but this is not it. I take no pleasure in saying that because housing is the single biggest social and, arguably, economic issue facing this country. It is the number one…

I may not use the entirety of my allotted time but I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill on behalf of the Labour Party this afternoon in a debate that is long overdue. As remarked upon by Deputy Ó Broin, some representatives from Fine Gael were actively resisting this Bill up until recently even though it was clear to all of us that this type of legislation was needed. The very need for this Bill in the first place is a symptom of the State’s basic failing to house its own citizens and to house all of tho…

I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak on the Finance Bill. This legislation gives effect to many of the substantial proposals announced in budget 2023 in late September. This summer saw the longest run-in to a budget in many years at a time of great uncertainty and anxiety. In many ways, budget 2023 flattered to deceive. It is worth remembering that, even with the expenditure of an additional €11 billion between this month and 31 December 2023, this Government will have managed to widen the gap between the …

The business of the House is going to be concluded earlier than we thought. A glance at the monitor told me we are probably two hours ahead of where we expected to be. On that basis, I am unlikely to use the full 20 minutes apportioned to me, but we will see how I get on. These are welcome proposals. They have been evolving now for some time and many of them are based on recommendations that were made by SIPO over several years. The Labour Party is proud of our function in improving the ethical framework within whi…

This is a good but long overdue day. Several years after the Central Bank recommended that our laws be amended to make individual decision-makers and financial institutions responsible for their actions, we finally have a Bill before us to make it a reality. The recent history of banking in this country has been well documented. There was an absence of strong regulation and too close a relationship between bankers and regulators, all egged on by Governments in the 2000s that were satisfied to leave them at it for a…

This has been a really welcome and, to a degree, very informative debate. I have no doubt that what the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, said is sincere and genuine, and I have no doubt that the remarks made by the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, are also sincere and genuine. Somebody is missing today, however, and that is the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath. I will return to that particular issue later in my remarks. It is really welcome that we are having this p…

I naturally support the amendment proposed by my colleague, Deputy Bacik. From the perspective of further elaboration, the other cohorts and sections of society this amendment would affect, if adopted, are those, for example, who are living permanently in mobile home parks and those kinds of arrangements. There are facilities in my constituency, especially in east Meath, where people are in the same scenario outlined by Deputy Bacik. People are living in managed mobile homes or other forms of developments managed, …

At the start of this debate I thought I had stumbled into the Fianna Fáil Ard-Fheis. It was quite an extraordinary defence, with all respect to the Acting Chairman. I am sure he was there and I am sure he enjoyed it. The defence of Housing for All is quite extraordinary and does not tally with the lived experience of the people I and most of us in this House represent. I am talking about the experience they have in their everyday lives and the experience we have of representing people who are on housing lists and w…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion on behalf of the Labour Party. For the record, our amendment states: "further calls on the Government to: - replace the Defective Concrete Products Levy with a levy on profits derived from construction; and - commit to the introduction in the Finance Bill 2022 of retrospective tax relief for those already carrying out remediation works on their homes." Like many, and we have heard it ventilated here this evening, the Labour Party is concerned about the proposal for …

This time last week the Minister and his Government colleagues were patting themselves on the back on a job well done on budget day. There is no shortage of graphs and other narrative in the glossy expenditure report claiming how much better off low-income households will be as a result of the once-off measures combined with the budget 2023 measures. However, when we strip away the €4.1 billion in once-off measures, the picture is not as rosy as presented in the expenditure report. Why is there no analysis using th…

I absolutely get that. It is normal practice that the distributional impact of a budget would be provided in the Exchequer report. A bit of a con job was attempted to be perpetrated against the Irish people, quite frankly. I read the documents and I do not see any separate, isolated analysis for the measures and provisions that apply for 2023 exclusively. Of course, when one looks in the round at the once-off package of €4.1 billion and add that to the budget 2023 package, it looks very impressive. However, the rea…

I welcome the Minister’s commitment on the record of the House to provide that additional analysis. That is very useful, indeed. It is not abstract, either. It is an important analysis to have. I draw the Minister’s attention to the minimum essential standard of living, MESL, post-budget analysis from the Vincentian Partnership. It essentially concur with some of the conclusions arrived at by the ESRI and makes the point that, in reality, a €12 a week increase to social welfare rates will not sufficiently insulate …

I will be brief. This question relates to the Government's plans, if any, to ensure that all contractors who are awarded State public procurement contracts pay all staff a living wage. I will clarify this question somewhat by acknowledging that the Government is in some ways powerless, given that there is no formal living wage in place. The National Minimum Wage Act governs this area. We have a national minimum wage and we are moving towards a living wage. I would appreciate the Minister of State's views on the liv…

I thank the Minister of State for his response. I am very familiar indeed with the SEO system and the employment regulation order, ERO, system that gives effect to the decisions of joint labour committees and ministerial sign offs regarding statutory minimum rates of pay higher than the national minimum wage, which would apply, for example, to contract cleaners and security workers. There are, of course, ongoing attempts to undermine the security ERO, and there may be implications for State contracts in that regard…