Joe O'Reilly: Backs Finance Act as Prudent, Progressive Budget

At the outset, can I welcome the Minister here, who indeed has a lot of professional and personal expertise in this sphere, so he's a very apt person to be with us for the night. I suppose at the outset, it just merits saying that the object of the Finance Act is to give effect to the budget, to give legislative effect to the budget, primarily the taxation methods, the taxation changes, etc. This budget is set in the context of a strong economy. We have £2.8 million in employment. We've had a 19% increase in employment since lockdown. 63,500 new jobs will be added in 2026 to the economy. We have high living standards. We have long life expectancy. We have excellent educational outcomes. And we have a good progressive social protection system in this country. So it's in that context that the budget is set and the Finance Act. I'll just say that just as we are in this very good overall context, we're not without challenges. And the big challenge, of course, is tariffs. It's set now at 15%, not as bad as anticipated, but still it's a significant increase. And what was the status quo? Trade wars and geopolitical conflict, which we had a lot of today devoted to. So those are the challenges in the backdrop. And we have to build in resilience to our economy to deal with those challenges. And we're doing that very effectively in this budget. In next year's budget, we're voting £19.1 billion for infrastructure right across the board. In water, in roads, transport, energy, etc. A grid and all of that. So that's an important bit of resilience and economic activity for the country. Over the coming five years, we'll be devoting 5% of GDP to infrastructure development. We have put £4.5 billion this year into the Future Ireland Fund, which will cope with ageing, with climate change, with digital transition. We'll have a budget surplus, a very healthy situation, of £5.1 billion. And we'll have a debt, an improving debt to GDP ratio. We're at 61% now. We're going down to 58%. That's very, very significant. And we'll have about an annual growth of, into the future, of about 2.19%. So that's an encouraging situation in the way that we're dealing with the whirlwinds that are out there. And that we cannot fully anticipate the impact. I did say this finance bill creates a progressive Ireland, a caring Ireland, and enhances that. And that's important. So there's a big attack on child poverty in this bill. We have the weekly rate, an increase of the weekly rate of a child over 12 of €16 to €78. A child under 12 of €8. For carers, and the carers thing is so important, both in whole clinical economic terms and in human terms, it's important that we have our carers supported in the homes. Income disregard is up 3.75 for a single person, up 7.50 for a couple. There's a fuel allowance, which is important in the context of fuel, poverty, etc. €5 increase, 33 to 38. So, there's a flat rate increase of €10 in the social welfare payments in general. We'd wish that were more. But in the budgetary context, and with the other issues in the budget, supports, fuel allowance, etc., it's not inconsiderable, but we would hope and aspire to more in the future. The budget, importantly, makes provision for auto-enrolment, which is effectively a retirement savings scheme. And the state will invest €154 million in that next year as a contribution in 2026. That's a hugely important initiative. One of the most important initiatives in a long, long time. And I must acknowledge that it was indeed my constituency colleague, who has been in the news a lot lately, Heather Humphreys, who piloted that through initially. But it's a significant social reform, irrespective of the politics of it. Now, the extension of the rent tax credit is important in the housing context. The VAT reduction on apartments is important. And I have anecdotal evidence. We have colleagues here from Dublin City. But anecdotal evidence, and from walking around, there would seem to be a lot of activity on the apartment complex front, which that would suggest that this is working. We'll have, and this is important, I mentioned this in the context of building in resilience, but in the context of housing, it's important to the €9.4 billion infrastructure fund. Now, in agriculture, and this is, agriculture is our core industry, if you like. And it gives rise to food processing, et cetera. In fact, in the region I come from, everything is evident on agriculture, both in terms of the processing, et cetera. Agriculture, the young farmer, and this is important in the context of succession, the succession in farming, succession planning, I think is the term. But young, trained farmer stamp duty relief is being maintained and extended. The farm consolidation relief has been extended. The farm restructuring relief has been extended. And in the climate area, the extension of the VRT relief on electric vehicles is important. The extension of the 400 income tax disregard for people selling electricity into the grid is important. So, I suppose the salient, the purpose of tonight's second stage is that we, then we'll go into the detail at committee stage, is that we broadly approve the Finance Act. And in so doing, I would commend the Finance Act to the House. And I would ask you to everyone in the House to support it on the grounds that it deals with economic whirlwinds. So, it's a prudent response to the international difficulties that we face around the tariffs, around geopolitical conflict, et cetera. So, it's a prudent response there. It's socially progressive. And it's a very important response to the housing crisis in terms of putting the infrastructure in place. And it's a response to climate change and to agriculture. So, it attempts to keep the stimulus in all sectors of the economy. So, I would say it's this Finance Bill, giving effect to the taxation measures in the budget, is an important piece of legislation. I hope we'll have a good debate and that it will go through a second stage and a good discussion at committee stage, or rather a recommendation stage in this instance. So, on that basis, we'll leave it. And I, again, welcome the Minister and I welcome the Finance Act and support it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Markett.