Creighton slams first-time buyer ‘rat-race’ and calls for Dáil reforms

The Coalition has been accused of deliberately creating a "rat-race" among young people looking to buy a home in order to "drive up the fortunes of the construction sector".

Former Fine Gael TD, Lucinda Creighton, said the current coalition is “going back to the sort of economic growth strategies that prevailed back in the early and mid 2000s” where “the huge emphasis is on the construction sector”.

“The emphasis is on re-creating a rat race to encourage young, first-time buyers to get on the property ladder, to start bidding against each other, to drive up house prices and in turn drive up the fortunes of the construction sector.”

The former minister for European Affairs is calling for a reform of the budgetary process.

“Before the last election Fine Gael promised a democratic revolution where there would be much greater scrutiny of economic policy, of budgetary policy, and the role of the Oireachtas would be much greater and essentially there would be much more accountability of decision making. That hasn’t happened.

“It was promised that all budgetary spending would be scrutinised and analysed by Oireachtas committees — that didn’t happen,” she said.

“We still have a situation where the Minister for Finance goes behind close doors with a small group of people in the Economic Management Council and the budget is announced to the Dáil and it’s a question of like it or lump it. There is no real Oireachtas scrutiny and then the budget is implemented.

“That gives huge scope, I believe, for vested interests to lobby and have undue influence over government policy and we see that now with the construction sector,” she said.

Ms Creighton, who was expelled from Fine Gael when she voted against the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill said she still does not know if her Reform Alliance political group will become a party. But she said she does want to “contribute to providing an alternative way of doing politics in this country.”

There would be no point in setting up a political party, she said, if it “replicated the same problems and same mistakes” of the existing party structure, such as a stringent whip system and where independent thought is frowned upon.

Ms Creighton who gave birth to her first child 10 weeks ago, said the culture of Leinster House can be “toxic and condescending towards women” and more gender balance is needed to counter that culture.

“There might be a mood among the electorate that possibly wasn’t there before. They’ve seen the sort of impact of a lot of policy making by some of the male leading lights in the political sphere and maybe they are saying: ‘now lets give some more women a chance’ and that is beginning to happen,” she said.

In an interview with Miriam Meets on RTÉ Radio, she also revealed that Minister Leo Varadkar was one of the first people to visit her after the birth of her daughter. “Friendships override political differences as far as I am concerned,” she said.

“Motherhood makes you realise that rushing and racing and doing all the things that you take for granted, are not necessarily perhaps as important as you might have thought. It’s fantastic, so far, so good.”