Fine Gael pledges to spend 10bn euro of Apple money on housing

Fine Gael has pledged to spend 10 billion euro of Apple tax money on housing as Simon Harris said first-time buyer schemes were red line issues for the party.

The party is committing to deliver 303,000 homes over the next six years at a cost of 40 billion euro, averaging at around 50,000 homes a year.

The Fine Gael leader said the party would look to use “at least 10 billion euro” of the 14 billion euro of back taxes from Apple “to help build the homes we need”.

“You can’t just say housing is the number one priority and not significantly try to turbo charge further the budget for it,” he said as he launched his party’s housing policy in Dublin.

The Fine Gael housing policy also commits to extending two grants for first-time buyers: the Help-to-Buy grant will be increased from a maximum of 30,000 to 40,000 euro until 2030; and the First Home Scheme will be extended to second-hand homes for five more years.

“We will not go into government in any scenario where the rug is pulled from under first-time buyers – not doing it, not interested, won’t be happening,” Mr Harris said, adding that retaining these supports would be “a red line for Fine Gael”.

Asked why people should believe what Fine Gael promises to do on housing, Mr Harris said: “Because we’re telling the truth, because people of Ireland know and they’re not fooled by anybody who tries to rewrite history or start history as a renewed point in time.”

He said that when Fine Gael first went into government in 2011, the banks “couldn’t lend a bob”, there were ghost states “all over the place” and there were people in his constituency office “in tears about mortgage arrears and losing their homes” and “we had to build that back from scratch”.

The Fine Gael sign stuck to the lectern where Mr Harris was standing fell off as he said “housing is the biggest priority” and there was a “credible way forward”.

“What you can’t do is pretend you can just flick a switch and go dramatically up. What you can do is show people, with a 40 billion (euro) plan, put your money where your mouth is, you can now really scale up the ambition further.

“The other reason I think people can genuinely believe there is progress on housing is the fact that right across this country, people are seeing the cranes, people are seeing the new housing estates, I’m canvassing in so many new homes in my constituency that weren’t there in the last general election.”

Asked whether the extension of the two schemes for first-time buyers would add to house prices, minister Paschal Donohoe said the best way to stop homes from becoming more unaffordable was to build more homes.

He said Help-to-Buy would still only be available for new-builds, and the increase in the threshold was smaller than the one made in 2020, from 20,000 to 30,000 euro.

He also said there are caps in the first home scheme, “thereby minimising the effect that that change could have in the inflation of new or second-home properties”.

However, a pledge to use Apple tax money on housing schemes was criticised by Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Mr Martin said it was agreed among coalition leaders that it would be used to fund once-off projects.

“I was surprised when I read that, because all three parties agreed that the Apple funding and AIB funding would be for once-off capital projects,” Mr Martin said.

“Now Help-to-Buy is a demand-led scheme. It’s funded through current budgets, so I was a bit surprised to read that headline that it’s 10 billion and some of it is for Help-to-Buy.

“That’s a change, and it hasn’t been explained to me in terms of how you could do that. Because if you’re going to improve Help-To-Buy, you have to provide for it in current funding.

“In terms of water, if Irish Water can be told you’re getting this money over a five-year period, and maybe longer, if we can, then you can get on with it and not be coming back to central government all the time, or the department looking for this, that and the other, and the same for housing.

“Apple money should not be used for current funding or should not be used for demand.”