Government indicates it will end cut on fuel excise duty and reduced Vat for hospitality

Green Party leader Eamon Ryan made clear the basis for the cuts in taxes were not tenable any more, given the decreases in prices in fuel in recent weeks

The energy credit for households, a reduced 9% Vat rate on electricity and gas, reduction in excise duty on petrol and home heating oil are some of the cost-of-living measures introduced by the Government last year that are due to terminate at the end of February

The Government has given its strongest indication it will end its cut on fuel excise duty and Vat reductions on hospitality will come to an end in the coming weeks.

Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said because of a warmer than expected winter and a reduction in gas prices, the Government must look at “restoring our tax base”.

Speaking at Leaders’ Questions, he said the price of gas had come down very significantly from what it was five or six weeks ago.

“In those circumstances, we do have to look at restoring our tax base because the benefit of excise and Vat is that it helps provide us a stable income that allows us pay for the pay increase in the public service which we need to deliver on,” he said.

While Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said there would not be a “cliff-edge”, Mr Ryan made clear the basis for the cuts in taxes were not tenable any more, given the decreases in prices in fuel in recent weeks.

The energy credit for households, a reduced 9% Vat rate on electricity and gas, reduction in excise duty on petrol and home heating oil are some of the cost-of-living measures introduced by the Government last year that are due to terminate at the end of February, as well as the ban on energy disconnections.

“The income streams that you get from a stable tax base are part of a social democratic approach to government. And it's so easy to promise you won't have to pay for anything and that you will provide for everything. 

"No, you have a responsibility to balance your income and your expenditure. The State needs to expand. We need more services, we need more houses. So we need more hospitals. We need to pay for that and that we do by creating a sound economy,” he said.

He was responding to Rural Independent TD Mattie McGrath, who said the Government should not plunge the ordinary men and women of Ireland into penury by restoring the full tax rates.

Housing plan 'fatally flawed'

The Government’s housing plan is “fatally flawed” and is committing the country to a permanent worsening crisis by failing to meet demand for homes, the Dáil has heard.

Speaking at Leaders' Questions, Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty said that even if the Government met its 2030 targets under its Housing for All plan, there would be a shortfall of 245,000 homes.

Speaking at Leaders' Questions, Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty said even if the Government met its 2030 targets under its Housing for All plan, there would be a shortfall of 245,000 homes.

He said that was an alarming situation for everybody, for those struggling to find affordable accommodation and for those who will need affordable accommodation in the years ahead.

He said Sinn Féin had argued as far back as 2020 that the real housing needed, when the pent-up demand for social and affordable housing is taken into account, the real demand was above 40,000 new homes per year.

“But since then, we've had three years of your under supply despite continued population growth. So it is obvious that the Government's housing targets need to be revised and revised up significantly and revised up immediately,” he said.

“The current targets aren't based on evidence or objective assessment of needs. Instead, they are result of political manoeuvering, boasting the targets are met when the targets themselves are clearly, clearly flawed,” Mr Doherty added.

Mr Doherty said the Government’s plan has been “fatally undermined” by the very housing commission that the Government established. 

He said the implications for this for struggling renters and for those struggling to buy a home were very stark. The housing plan is not only failing under its own parents, it is actually destined to fail, he added.

Responding for the Government, Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said while no one disagrees with the need for more supply and urgency, he said Sinn Féin in Government would scrap the new Land Development Agency.

Mr Ryan said we as a society must be very careful not to characterise a target as a limit on ambition. He said the Government wanted "to smash those targets" so that more people can have a home. 

Mr Ryan said last year it was targeted that 24,600 new homes would be built but new CSO figures have confirmed that 29,851 homes were actually built.

Amid tetchy exchanges, Ceann Comhairle Seán Ó Feargháil gave TDs a scolding for a lack of order. 

“Can we stop all of this back and forth, please. Let's conduct ourselves properly,” he said. “This is not a comedy hour,” he added, amid jocular jibes.

Forestry deal

Mr Ryan told Labour leader Ivana Bacik she “needs her head examined” after she raised the controversial forestry deal involving a British investment fund, calling for it to be scrapped.

The Government has said Coillte is using UK fund Gresham House to manage the development of forests as it is banned by EU laws from drawing down premium payments since 2003.

“It's a deal which we believe is wrong on many levels. It will be an arrangement which will facilitate the handing over of millions of euros of public money into the wallets of private investors and vulture funds,” she said.

Ms Bacik said the deal had drawn immense criticism and outrage from across all sectors, urban and rural alike, from environmentalists to farmers to local communities and many constituents in Dublin Bay South voicing serious disquiet.

Even TDs on government benches were making clear their opposition to the partnership between Coillte and Gresham House, she said.

Referencing a leaked document published in Thursday’s Irish Examiner, in which the European Commission has criticised Ireland's forestry policy in a scathing letter, she said: “It is highlighting particular concerns around planting on peat lands and the impact on birds.

"So the commission has been critical of this the State aid application which is the bedrock of the government's proposed change in forestry policy. This has not even yet been submitted.”