If Deputy Danny Healy-Rae arrives in the Chamber I will concede six minutes of my time to him. Section 3 amends the earned income tax credit to increase the value of the credit from €555 to €950. While it is a small step, it is a very welcome measure for the self-employed. They need to be supported because they are the backbone in trying to recover Ireland's economy.
Section 4 deals with the home carer tax credit. While the increase is most welcome it simply does not do enough to benefit families who care for their children in their own home, which is very important. The benefit to families is limited, particularly since tax individualisation, as one-income families pay more tax than dual-income families on every euro earned. We cannot discriminate against one-income households, particularly in light of the newly introduced child care scheme. I appeal to the Minister to review the workings of this scheme. During the budget debate some people took umbrage with me but it is not just my belief as studies have proven that the best place for a young child to be raised, certainly in the first six months of their lives or longer, is in the home.
I have nothing at all against child care. It is very necessary. My own children were in child care.
Section 7 extends the home renovation incentive scheme for a further two years. I had proposed this scheme in my pre-budget submissions for many years and I welcomed its introduction. If it helps families and small businesses and limits the potential of the black market, it is very welcome. The scheme is working successfully. I suppose I have to declare an interest as I put new windows in my house under this scheme. It is an important scheme that gives small business people great opportunities and cuts out the black market.
Section 8 deals with the first-time buyers scheme. I have huge concerns in this regard. I have told the Minister, Deputy Coveney, this in committee. I am slightly pleased that an amendment has already been proposed to avoid over-borrowing but it is a matter of concern that this was not raised at the outset. The Central Bank rules and the requirement that 80% of the price of a house would have to be borrowed support the more well-off and not ordinary couples who want to build houses or buy second-hand homes. These people, who might have some savings, want to work and perhaps have their own house on a family site. Not to allow this was a retrograde step because there are many who are forced to sell houses or want to sell houses so that they can trade up or down. The scheme is narrow and negative.
Section 11 extends the start-your-own-business relief for a further two years and this is most welcome. Tá fíor-fháilte roimhe sin. We need those who are qualified, educated and have the vision and the enthusiasm to start their own businesses and we need to stimulate and support them.
Section 14 makes a number of amendments to the living city initiative. While the amendments in this regard are welcome, they simply do not go far enough. What about our living towns, our rural towns and our villages? It is not all about Dublin, although it seems to be. There are other cities as well. I am not being anti-Dublin, but we need the rural towns and the county towns too. A tax incentive scheme could revitalise Ireland’s largest towns and provide badly needed homes and, more importantly, bring life back into our towns. This should not have been ignored in budget 2017. It is crazy that in certain towns there are streets on which no one lives. We need to be imaginative and get people back living in them, thereby reducing the housing list. We are making living towns but the shops close at 6 p.m.
Preliminary findings from the analysis of census 2016 by the Heritage Council of Ireland reveal that there are more than 10,000 vacant non-holiday homes in 17 of the larger towns across the country. That is bizarre. Those homes should be utilised. Where they are built, finished and ready, they should be used. The living city initiative, which is currently confined to parts of the cities of Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Waterford and Kilkenny, must be extended and targeted at some of the country’s largest provincial towns, including Clonmel. The latter, which was the largest inland town until quite recently, has 536 vacant homes. Imagine it. Nenagh has 603 vacant non-holiday homes and Thurles has 499 vacant non-holiday homes. There are 3,000 approved applicants on the housing lists in Tipperary. Those vacant homes would half the lists. We need to use our imaginations and introduce stimulating legislation.
There are homes in our towns which are lying idle, which are almost derelict and which could be put to good use but for the cost of redevelopment, particularly the taxes and charges. An individual in my town of Clonmel had a business that closed down not so long ago. It was a relatively new business, in operation for perhaps ten years. He could convert the premises to four or, possibly, five apartment units. He went to the planners with his agent for a pre-planning meeting. His bank would not loan him the money but his accountant told him to run away from it in any event because he would have to pay 50% of the costs in development charges, planning fees and God knows what. Four families could have been housed in what is an empty but pretty modern building that will become derelict. Where is the imagination? This has been a gravy train for the county councils but they need to wake up and smell the coffee. Those charges were brought in during boom times. They need to be reduced so that business people such as that young man, who has a young family, can do this. He cannot let the premises because no one will take it up. He wants to change the use, but the process in that regard is too slow, arduous and costly.
Such an extension could play a major role in revitalising these towns and deliver thousands of habitable dwellings for homeless families and workers. It is not rocket science. We can have all the plans and homeless conferences we like, and I sympathise with anyone who is homeless, but we are achieving nothing. The answer is right in front of us and all that is needed is some slight amendments to the legislation and a bit of imagination. County managers and chief executive officers of councils should be instructed to get off their high horses and change the rates. They might say it is a matter for local authority members, but they all should be instructed as I have outlined. In the context of the most recent county development plan for towns in Tipperary, I made a submission to the effect that if there is a need for a change of use, this should be quite easy to facilitate. There would be no need to be reckless. We can observe the planning laws but we need to cut down the costs and the red tape. Do not say it is a no-no and that it would be a contravention of the plan. Have it in the plan that it can be done.
While I welcome the extension of the living city initiative, we simply cannot ignore the towns. The Government has given a commitment to rural Ireland and an extension of the living city initiative to a living town initiative would be a first step in the right direction. I looked for that in the programme for Government as did the Rural Independent Group - including Deputy Danny Healy-Rae and others - and the Independent Alliance. This needs to be examined and delivered upon. I have just given the example of the planning charges, and there are many more I could give. They are just too prohibitive. Amendments to the county development plan are not wanted. They are not listening. It is a closed shop.
Section 17 amends the income averaging regime for farmers. The IFA and other groups lobbied for this. I agree with and welcome it but I am concerned that the regime only allows farmers to elect the averaging regime for a single year but we know that there could be two very difficult years in a row. What options are available in this regard? This is very badly needed. Farmers are not trying to get out of paying tax. In a year such as this, however, when the price of milk, beef, cattle and cereals is through the floor, they experience difficulties. In difficult years, it is not viable to produce those items and crops to which I refer. What will farmers do? They should have some way of writing off this year and levelling it out. They will pay it. I am not saying that they do not pay it. They will pay it.
The amendment relating to vulture funds is very disappointing. Section 21 amends section 110 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 and tightens the loopholes used by vulture funds to pay an effective zero rate of tax on profits made on financial investments. It is like closing the stable door when the horse has not only got out but has gone off around the coast. It is ridiculous. Vulture funds and big investors availed of loopholes for far too long and, while I welcome the fact that it was brought in immediately, the whole area of retrospection should have been examined. We hear all kinds of stories every day. We hear that AIB has sold off lots of loans. There is something going on there because there is an eerie silence in cases I am involved in. They are in stalemate and are not being moved on at the moment. I am worried that they are all going to be sold off by banks that we bailed out and literally own.
Section 25 reduces the capital gains tax rate, which is very welcome for the self employed and farmers. It is also very welcome for vulture funds and therein lies the problem. We have new vulture funds in the country, which include the equine empires. I welcome them and support them. Coolmore Stud is one in my county. It gives great prowess to the racing industry, great enjoyment and good employment to people and support in respect of community issues. However, these funds will not stop - and cannot be stopped - gobbling up, grabbing and taking over all the land, including most of that in south Tipperary, as well as in south Kilkenny, west Waterford, east Cork, and now Kildare and north Tipperary. They are everywhere. This has to be stopped because this welcome measure was intended for families to be able to pass on land without capital gains tax. The long and the short of it is that with these vulture funds we do not know from where the money comes. They can outbid anyone and they close down the places when they buy them. They just bulldoze them. They bulldoze the fences, put up new ranch gates and hire security firms. A snipe would not get through the ditches not to mind, say, a rabbit getting a look in.
This is bad for Ireland. I lobbied the Government but it has not dealt with this matter. It suits the big conglomerates. The same applies to the vulture funds. While the measure was necessary, I sought a land cap of 750 acres, which is more than beneficial to anyone. It should be a lot less, but I stuck it at 750 acres. It was ignored in the budget. The Government will have to step in. These funds now have so much land in Tipperary it is the equivalent of 100 farmers each having a family farm of 120 acres. This is totally unacceptable. It does not affect the Leas-Cheann Comhairle's area but it affects all the good land.
We are back to the landlords and the penal times and we do not have a land commission or anyone looking at the issue. The Government and its predecessor have adopted a hush-hush policy, as did the Government before that, of which I was a supporter. The policy is that we must not touch these people because they are paying the parties handsomely and supporting them. This is utterly wrong and immoral. Ordinary families have to leave. Where will we get our schoolchildren or our football, hurling and camogie teams? How will we fill our community halls? We will have a wasteland for horses only.
While I do not find anything wrong with the increase in the price of cigarettes because they are bad, I feel for small shopkeepers. Similarly, the legislation on alcohol is killing and crucifying small self-employed shopkeepers. The Government will not tackle the supermarkets, Coolmore Stud and other conglomerates because those that are big and powerful must not be touched as their lobbies are too powerful. Meanwhile small shopkeepers are being denigrated, destroyed and subject to onerous taxes. Cigarettes will be sold on the black market, resulting in a loss of revenue to the Government. Black market cigarettes are much worse for the health of smokers and increasing the price of cigarettes provides support for illegal industries.
I would say much more if had time. I welcome the Ceann Comhairle back to the House.
