Simon Harris

I am not aware of any research or information that is not already in the public domain but let me double check. I bring the Deputy back to the political decision we made - and it was a political decision - in relation to recognising that viability is a major issue when it comes to apartment construction. Only a month or two after the budget, and I do not want to reach too much into the data, the i…

I have heard Deputy O'Callaghan make this point before and he holds a legitimate policy viewpoint on linking this to affordability. My predecessor was clear and I am clear too: this is a viability measure. While I do not have it in front of me, we have seen a very small example of where this measure has led to people building apartments to say that it has reduced the costs. However, it has not bee…

I thank Deputy Ward for taking this question on behalf of our colleague, Deputy Pete Roche. As part of the budget process, my Department annually conducts distributional analysis to examine the impact of proposed tax and welfare measures on a range of households. Given the variety of ways in which means tests are applied it would not be possible to do such analysis specifically on households that …

It is a very interesting point. This week, the Minister, Deputy Foley, took a very important step forward in publishing the first instalment of the action plan on childcare. That has a number of areas on which she is endeavouring to move including on the issue of staffing and pay but also in trying to provide maximum fee caps starting with lower income families. Next year has to be about publishin…

Sometimes it is like Goldilocks – too hot, too cold or just right. In every debate I do on finance, whether it is here or the media, the first half is spent saying we spent too much money and the second half is a list of things we on which we should have spent more. The job of the Minister for Finance, the Government and the Oireachtas is to try and get the balance right. The first of five budgets…

That is absolutely right. We have to keep the means test under review so they do not become mean. That is why we took a number of steps in the budget, particularly around carers, to make sure more people qualify because, ultimately, we want to phase out the means test. The Department of Social Protection, certainly in the previous Dáil, was working on reviewing the means test. I will seek an updat…

As stated earlier in relation to my Department’s forecast on inflation, an uptick was anticipated. That was down to what it describes as the base effects. The CSO outlined that the increase in inflation since September is largely accounted for by base effects. As a result, the assessment relating to inflation for next year has not materially changed. That is important to say because I understand t…

I very respectfully make the point that we put in place an extraordinary level of support for people over the past four years. Thank God this country was in a position to do that. We did it at a time of very high inflation. Those measures always had to be temporary. It is always difficult to unwind such measures, but I am crystal clear that if we did not get back to a situation of being able to de…

-----with which the EU has an agreement. There is also the issue of what has transpired. The Minister of State, Deputy Dooley, has apprised me of this in terms of how the industry has changed in the Netherlands where it is now conglomerates essentially running the industry. They are clearly winning a lot of influence to get the outcome they got last week.

At the time of budget 2026, the Department of Finance forecast a headline harmonised indices of consumer prices, HICP, inflation rate of 1.9% for next year. For household incomes, the Department of Finance forecast continued growth in wages per head of 3.9% in 2026. This implies continued growth in real incomes, which will support the purchasing power of households, and is an important indicator o…

That is not the message. The message is that we took a number of measures in this year's budget that will help families, businesses and workers as well. It includes investing - the Deputy and I have different policy views on this - and deciding to extend the renter's tax credit for a further three years. It includes making sure that people who benefit from the minimum wage increase do not find the…

That is not the message at all. The Deputy and I rightly discuss the issues of fuel poverty and energy prices in this House regularly, as we should. What I say to the people is that we have taken a number of measures to assist with the cost of energy, including the reduction of the VAT rate to 9%, a real budgetary cost that we decided to prioritise.

We decided to do that.

Did we or did we not-----

We will have lots of time. We are going to have lots of time. It just gets a bit tiresome when the Deputy just shouts me down.

Or interjecting.

For the people watching at home, I get a bit of time to speak and then the Deputy gets a bit of time to speak. I want people to know that we took a decision to reduce the VAT rate on people's energy bills and ensure that is in place for a number of years. We took the decision to make sure more people qualify for the fuel allowance than ever before. We took the decision to increase the fuel allowan…

In childcare, too.

We put money into capital, State-led childcare facilities for the first time. We extended the renters’ tax credit which was due to expire. We have taken real decisions and it is just the first of five budgets.

I thank Deputy Nash for the question. First, we share the same view on the importance of this derelict property tax. In a housing emergency, which we are in, every lever must be used. Having a tax that targets derelict properties is an important one. There is a significant body of work to do, however. I do not say this to in any way cast aspersions but I am conscious that local authorities will ha…

I appreciate the past examples. I remember soldiering on some of them together in past iterations of government. We need to get this right, however. My predecessor announced that timeline on budget day. I think we will all agree that we actually do not want to collect much revenue from the tax. Rather, we want people to take derelict properties and sites and put them back into use. The purpose of …

I genuinely am eager to engage on the design and construct of the new tax and we will have an opportunity to do that through the legislative process. I do also genuinely take the point around the urgency of this, and the Government genuinely does too, but we also have to just make sure we get it right. I am conscious there are local authorities around the country that do very a good job and that a…

I am advised by Revenue that LPT returns for the next valuation period of 2026 to 2030 have been filed and are fully up to date in respect of over 1.4 million properties. Filing arrangements are being finalised in respect of a further 202,278 local authority and approved housing body properties. There are approximately 40,000 open correspondence queries on hand with Revenue presently, including po…

I am genuinely sharing with the Deputy and I am happy to see if I can get him even more up-to-date information. I had a discussion on this earlier today as well. I am advised by Revenue that it is estimated that around 4% of properties will move up one band. These are the latest data I have available here, but I will try and get more up-to-date for the Deputy as soon as that is available. Let me t…

We have different views on property tax. Although I am open to correction, I think the Deputy used the property tax figures in Sinn Féin's alternative budget figures-----