Simon Harris
Wicklow · Fine Gael · Ireland
“There are more than 10,000 routes and thousands of buses involved and the number of students using the services is not a million miles away from 200,000. The current terms of the scheme are going to continue to apply for the 2026-27 school year.”
“I thank Deputy McDonald for raising what is genuinely an important issue. I do take the point that when we talk about this in the abstract or from a process point of view in here, that for people watching this is their real lived experience.”
“There number of children who have been supported by means of the school transport scheme, as Deputy Fitzmaurice knows and has alluded to, has grown significantly in recent years. Since 2018, the number increased from 120,000 in 2018 to more than 181,000 now. Included in that figure are 24,000 pupils with special educational needs.”
“I knew the Deputy would have to mention the GAA, especially with Galway and Limerick playing at the weekend. I wish everybody involved the best of luck. We are very committed to the school transport scheme. If the Deputy wants to see our commitment, he should look to our budget.”
“An ageing population, increasing healthcare needs, the transition to net zero and the need for continued investment in housing, energy and infrastructure will place a significant demand on public resources.”
“There is also a legitimacy to the point the Deputy made about how it is a legitimate form of transport for some people. We see this working in other European countries. We see it in our nearest neighbours. I do not want to get the regime wrong, but I think they have registration at the point of purchase that allows people to track this.”
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“Let me begin by agreeing with the Deputy on one point, which is that Bord Bia is indeed an exemplary organisation. It is an organisation that is fulfilling its mandate with distinction and it is doing so at a time of huge geopolitical and geoeconomic uncertainty. Last year, we saw Irish agrifood exports exceed more than €21 billion. Bord Bia is, therefore, excelling. Bord Bia is doing an exceptional job. Considering that the vast amount of food we produce in this country is exported, its role is indeed vital. We saw only last week China open its markets to Irish beef, which is an example of the work done by Bord Bia, Government and Government agencies in terms of opportunities for Irish food. Issues in relation to governance or conflicts of interest, perceived or real, are, indeed, important. I do not dispute that but so too is process.”
“We are constantly trying to get that balance right. We did say we are going to move to permanent targeted measures at a time when wages are thankfully growing above prices for the first time in a while. We did of course keep the Christmas bonus measure in place, which is a one-off double payment that is paid to all those on long-term social welfare payments, including pensioners. Objectively, the budget was a progressive one. The permanent measures introduced in budget 2026 benefited those on lower incomes above and beyond those on higher incomes.”
“I very respectfully make the point that we put in place an extraordinary level of support for people over the past four years. Thank God this country was in a position to do that. We did it at a time of very high inflation. Those measures always had to be temporary. It is always difficult to unwind such measures, but I am crystal clear that if we did not get back to a situation of being able to deliver one regular budget each year, the position would not be fiscally sustainable into the future. It also would not necessarily be a good use of public resources. Deputy Murphy probably does not need an energy credit this year. I do not mean that personally to him, I mean people in the Oireachtas do not need an energy credit this year. There are people who need assistance with their energy bills this year.”
“As a result, we always have to achieve a balance between increasing investment and moderating the growth in day-to-day spending while avoiding doing anything that involves such a cost that it could create other difficulties for us in the time ahead. We have taken a number of measures in the budget to try to assist people. The issue of the cost of energy is real and specific for people this winter. More people than ever will qualify for fuel allowance. The rate of the allowance will increase. For the first time, people on the working family payment will get the fuel allowance as well. We also have a disconnection moratorium in place for the winter period, so nobody should feel the cold in their home this winter. We have supports in place to help those experiencing energy poverty.”
“We are now seeing wages growing faster than prices which should now mean the average worker experiencing real wage gains next year. I know that is much needed. The Deputy and I will have a different perspective on this, but I would argue that we have endeavoured to provide significant support to households and businesses over the past number of years to help them absorb the worst impact of higher prices. These supports were temporary in nature. They balanced the need to provide assistance to the most vulnerable while avoiding a scenario whereby fiscal policy added to inflationary pressures. I say this for people at home: if the Government decides to spend lots more, it can have an inflationary effect and actually offset the benefit of what we are trying to achieve.”
“As stated earlier in relation to my Department’s forecast on inflation, an uptick was anticipated. That was down to what it describes as the base effects. The CSO outlined that the increase in inflation since September is largely accounted for by base effects. As a result, the assessment relating to inflation for next year has not materially changed. That is important to say because I understand that the cost-of-living pressures faced by people are real. They see individual items of inflation and individual reports and they wonder what that means for the year ahead. It is not only my Department and the European Commission. The ESRI has downgraded its inflation forecast for next year as recently as in its report this morning.”
“Regarding tax credits, I am learning in this job not to speculate on every potential measure. Lots of good ideas come up in this House. Tax measures are considered in the context of the annual budget. We have the work of the tax strategy group. I will be asking it to look at a range of issues in advance of the next budget. I will be happy to have feedback from Deputy Ward and other Members on that.”
“That is absolutely right. We have to keep the means test under review so they do not become mean. That is why we took a number of steps in the budget, particularly around carers, to make sure more people qualify because, ultimately, we want to phase out the means test. The Department of Social Protection, certainly in the previous Dáil, was working on reviewing the means test. I will seek an update for the Deputy on that. We live in a country where wage growth is outstripping price growth on average. For the first time in a while, we are seeing wages rising faster than prices. That is much-needed potential relief for families in the months and year ahead after what has been a very constrained and pressurised time in relation to the cost of living.”
“It was the budget of 9% in many ways - 9% for energy, which was reduced until the end of 2030, for jobs in the hospitality sector and also for stimulating apartment building because that is key to our housing challenge. However, I want to assure Deputies, their constituents and the people of Ireland that I want to get back to a regular budgetary rhythm whereby we can advance the tax measures for middle Ireland outlined in the programme for Government. Subject to being able to run the economy well and keeping things on the straight and narrow, that is exactly the path we will take over the next four budgets.”
“Sometimes it is like Goldilocks – too hot, too cold or just right. In every debate I do on finance, whether it is here or the media, the first half is spent saying we spent too much money and the second half is a list of things we on which we should have spent more. The job of the Minister for Finance, the Government and the Oireachtas is to try and get the balance right. The first of five budgets had to be about getting back to a regular pattern of budgeting and being very clear to everybody in this country and everybody who looks at investing here that we intend to continue to run budget surpluses and continue to set money aside into the funds and invest at scale in infrastructure and in respect of the infrastructural pinch points that are holding us back.”
“The parent has to have choice – that is really important – but even in a country as geographically small as Ireland there can be regional and local differences and providing a system that is flexible enough to understand that will be part of the challenge. Good measures have been taken this year, including the funding in capital for state interventions in some of these and 2026 will see the substantive plan.”
“It is a very interesting point. This week, the Minister, Deputy Foley, took a very important step forward in publishing the first instalment of the action plan on childcare. That has a number of areas on which she is endeavouring to move including on the issue of staffing and pay but also in trying to provide maximum fee caps starting with lower income families. Next year has to be about publishing a comprehensive plan that gets us from here to the destination envisaged in the programme for Government of €200 per month per child. We know how to do that. What we need to know is how we do it. In addition, we need to make sure the system has enough places and staff. The Deputy made the point that one size does not fit all. There is not a one-size-fits-all model in relation to childcare.”
“The 9% VAT on gas and electricity bills, which most opposition parties only budgeted to go to the end of the year or April, will now be in place for several years until the 31 December 2030. There is also a variety of other measures.”
“However, with the substantial personal income tax packages implemented over the past four years, the previous Government made significant progress in the context of increasing the entry point to income tax for all income earners and increasing the point at which the higher rate of income tax takes effect. These income tax measures are broadly expected to be in line with wage growth. Budget 2025 has provided a range of support to individuals, families and businesses. In particular, the rent tax credit has proven to be a very meaningful support for renters. The credit is being extended for a further three years. The ceiling of the second USC rate band is being increased. This will ensure that a full-time worker on the minimum wage who benefits from the increase in the hourly minimum wage will remain outside the highest rates of USC.”
“The budget is also progressive, with low-income households gaining more. The bottom two income cohorts gain 4.9% and 3.8%, respectively. The analysis indicates that budget 2026 reduces the at-risk-of-poverty rate for all households by 1.7% on average. That is not something you hear in this House very often. As the Deputy will appreciate, in the budget the Government had to make difficult choices to get back to an annual rhythm of budgeting and move beyond one-off measures to being able to deliver permanent, sustainable and targeted measures to assist people. The budget was designed to boost our economic resilience and support workers and growth in their income by investing in jobs and the future.”
“I thank Deputy Ward for taking this question on behalf of our colleague, Deputy Pete Roche. As part of the budget process, my Department annually conducts distributional analysis to examine the impact of proposed tax and welfare measures on a range of households. Given the variety of ways in which means tests are applied it would not be possible to do such analysis specifically on households that do not qualify for means tested supports. As in previous budgets, distributional analysis was conducted through the decision-making process for budget 2026 and ex post distributional analysis of the final budget measures was then published on budget day. The analysis finds that all households receive an average boost in their net disposable income of 1.1% as a result of budget 2026.”
“That is an important thing to do in recognising there is a viability issue. There was also the June 2024 Department of Finance report which recognised challenges in this area and the Department of housing total development cost report. I thank Deputy Carrigy for his question on apartments. I also followed that meeting and it was encouraging to hear many people, including the AHBs, saying this measure would help them. The Deputy is right in saying this is just one of a number of measures; there are also the apartment standards. I do not have a timeline on that but I will see if I can get it and revert to him. The apartment standard changes, the viability measures around the VAT and the clarity around rent protections are three key issues in trying to really stimulate apartment construction.”
“I have heard Deputy O'Callaghan make this point before and he holds a legitimate policy viewpoint on linking this to affordability. My predecessor was clear and I am clear too: this is a viability measure. While I do not have it in front of me, we have seen a very small example of where this measure has led to people building apartments to say that it has reduced the costs. However, it has not been introduced primarily as an affordability measures; it has been introduced primarily as a viability measure. There are other things we try to do on the viability side, such as cost rental, renter's tax credits, etc. That is a broader debate. I do not want to say, nor did I say, that no evidence-based research has been done. We have listened to the market, listened to industry and listened to the people who build apartments.”
“It is not just a measure that is going to benefit developers in the private sense - by the way there is nothing wrong with private development and we need a lot more of it - but it will also benefit AHBs. It will reduce the cost of apartments for approved housing bodies which is also a good thing. It will also benefit, for example, people building student accommodation which is also a good thing. I am out of time but I agree with the Deputy on the broader point about the importance of measures being targeted and carefully monitored and I hope I will have a chance to come back in.”
“I am not aware of any research or information that is not already in the public domain but let me double check. I bring the Deputy back to the political decision we made - and it was a political decision - in relation to recognising that viability is a major issue when it comes to apartment construction. Only a month or two after the budget, and I do not want to reach too much into the data, the initial data is somewhat encouraging. The Society Chartered Surveyors in Ireland which has expertise and certainly independence in this pointed out that there are six categories of apartments and only two of them were viable before Government made a number of interventions and it now believes that five out of six are viable which is a good thing.”
“The measures introduced in budget 2026, in tandem with more structural measures related to areas such as planning, apartment design and infrastructure, are all elements of a whole-of-government approach aiming to improve viability, increase supply and help to create a long-term sustainable housing system that reflects our country's needs.”
“These include the reduction in VAT on apartments, the enhanced corporation tax deduction for certain apartment construction costs and enhancements to the living city initiative, which encourages people to regenerate and live in historic buildings in the centre of Irish cities and now in five large towns under the national planning framework. Apartment development at scale will play an important role in meeting our housing targets. However, in recent years we have seen a retrenchment of private capital from the funding and development of apartments because these developments are costly, capital intensive and higher risk. Investment in the private rental sector in Dublin is estimated to have fallen from €2 billion in 2019 to €166 million in 2024.”
“The Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland report reveals through detailed case studies that State interventions are helping to bridge the financial viability gap. The analysis shows that, without Government initiatives, just two out of six apartment types are viable, whereas with State interventions five out of six become viable. Even with record levels of State spending allocated for housing, private capital will also be required to meet our housing needs. As such, it is important to create an environment where we can continue to attract private investment, both domestic and international. For this reason, budget 2026 contained a number of measures to support the housing sector, and in particular the construction of apartment developments.”
“The Deputy is also familiar with the recently published Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland report "The Real Costs of New Apartment Delivery 2025", which came out post the budget. It found that State interventions are playing a critical role in closing the financial viability gap while also noting that affordability remains the key challenge. There is also a Department of housing total development cost survey. The direct straight answer to the Deputy's question is that the two principal reports from an official Department point of view are the Department of Finance report in June 2024 on availability, composition and flow of finance for residential development and the Department of housing total development cost survey.”
“High-density housing, such as apartments, will form a significant portion of these, in line with changing demographics and in order to achieve national policies on compact growth aimed at creating more sustainable communities. The direct answer to the Deputy's question is that a number of reports have been published by my Department, most recently one in June 2024 that looked at the availability, composition and flow of finance for residential development. This report found that there is reasonable access to finance for viable residential developments. However, there are certain segments where viability is challenged and there is constrained access to finance, including funding apartment development for the private market. That was the 2024 anchor. I think that report was published.”
“I propose to take Questions Nos. 177 and 364 together. The Deputy was determined to ask this question because it came in as a priority, regular oral and a written question. I am glad it got tabled because it is an important issue in relation to the expenditure of public money and the impact of that on the delivery of housing. A well-functioning housing market, we can all agree, is crucial to supporting labour mobility, improving competitiveness and ensuring that Ireland remains an attractive location for both domestic and foreign investment into the future. It is key for our people first and foremost. The newly released national housing plan targets the delivery of 300,000 new homes from 2025 to 2030.”
“I am pleased to hear that Fingal County Council will now be included in the scheme. That is a source of welcome relief for people in Deputy Boland's county and constituency. I will engage with the Minister, Deputy Browne, on those homeowners in Skerries, Lusk and The Naul who have already remediated their homes. I do not want to make any commitments because I am not across the detail but I will certainly talk to the Minister, Deputy Browne, and revert to Deputy Boland.”
“Let me reflect on what Deputy Doherty said. While some of this is not within my direct remit, I am a leader in government and am not recused from responsibility. My sense from engaging with people in Donegal and other parts of the country is that the scheme is now working for more people than it was but that there are still some who have significant concerns that they cannot access the scheme, and that there are other areas, beyond privately owned homes, where people are still asking how they will resolve the issue. Up until now, the approach has been for the line Department to work its way through this, but we are going to need to give a more considered response as to how we proceed. Let me reflect on it. I will be happy to engage online or offline on this.”
“There are other issues I have been trying to address through a variety of roles, including in respect of preschool facilities in the Deputy's constituency. There is one in Raphoe, as he will know. It is trying and there has to be a way forward in respect of this. I accept that we need to continue to work and engage on this further. I am pleased to hear that BPFI engagement has been good. I will still list this as an agenda item for my meeting with it in January. I am also happy to discuss the role of Central Bank of Ireland when I meet in January.”
“I believe people. I believe them when I meet them. I believed them when I sat in their kitchens in the Deputy’s constituency and county. They have told me about some of the issues they are still experiencing regarding shortfalls, anomalies or issues with banks. They raised some of those issues with me quite truthfully when I was in Donegal, which I believe, from memory, was during the month of August. We are trying as a Government to continue to respond and evolve the scheme. We are seeing an increased uptake. That is also factually true. I do not like to hear from the Deputy that a Department is not engaging, because we need to continue to engage on this. The distress, worry and fear are real.”
“I will raise this issue at my next monthly engagement with the Governor of the Central Bank. If the Deputy wants to send me on any specific information in advance of that, I will be happy to consider it.”
“On the issue of access to financial products and services, the existing consumer protection regulatory framework fully applies to all consumers, including those whose homes are affected by defective concrete blocks. Lenders are strongly encouraged to engage constructively with homeowners affected by defective concrete blocks and assist them where possible in accessing the State redress scheme and remediating their homes. In particular, the Central Bank's consumer protection code requires all regulated entities to act with due skill, care and diligence in the best interests of its customers and without prejudice to the pursuit of their legitimate commercial aims. It does not, through its policies, procedures or work practices, prevent access to basic financial services.”
“As the Deputy is aware, the overall Government response to problems associated with defective concrete blocks is led by my colleague, the Minister for housing. His Department is engaging with impacted households and relevant stakeholders and administering financial supports to help affected homeowners. The Department of housing has engaged with Banking and Payments Federation Ireland, BPFI, to emphasise the need for a fair and consistent approach by the banking sector in supporting customers with distressed mortgage payments caused by defective concrete blocks in their homes. I am due to meet BPFI early in the new year and I too will raise this issue with it.”
“I thank the Deputy. On an addendum, he raised with me on Report Stage of the Finance Bill a specific issue in relation to rental properties and their availability in Donegal. I undertook to engage with the Minister for housing on that. I sent him the information from our discussion and I will be engaging with him in January. I am happy to talk to the Deputy further about this. I am aware that this is a very difficult situation for homeowners. I do not need to tell the Deputy, of all people, about the many homes affected. The current and previous Governments have tried to step up and provide support to many households affected by defective concrete blocks, and this is reflected in the increased funding for the scheme in recent years.”
“Ultimately, that is what we should all be trying to foster here. However, I take the issue seriously. I know this sector through my own constituency and I know many people who work in it. I am aware that the ecosystem has benefited. It is a really positive part of the Irish economy and the Irish offering. Many countries would love to have what we have. If there are areas in need of improvement, I will be very happy to consider them and engage further on them.”
“I am sharing that with the Deputy for the benefit of the discussion. Ultimately, as the Deputy knows, it is a matter for workers' and employers' representatives to reach agreement.”
“I would welcome seeing that and I am sure the Deputy will give me what he has about the survey. I will also raise it through my Department with the Department of culture and Screen Ireland. If there is useful information that provides us with an insight into the industry, I would like to see that. It is important to see it and it should not be suppressed. I share that view. On whoever is giving me the information, the information is from my Department, to be clear. I am told there have been times when an Irish production has used PACT-Equity terms but there have also been cases where actors have been offered terms equivalent to UK PACT-Equity terms and have refused them on the basis of previous Irish contracts offering better terms, in particular on lower budget productions.”
“There are a number of issues, of which I imagine Deputy Boyd Barrett is aware, before the High Court regarding substantive issues that arose from the Labour Court. I am often asked why we will not mandate PACT-Equity contracts, as used in the UK. They have been offered to Irish workers on a number of productions and they turned it down because the Irish contracts offered better terms.”
“Deputy Byrne captured the point I would make. This tax credit has been extraordinarily successful. Deputy Boyd Barrett is not suggesting that it has not. It has created lots of employment and investment and an ecosystem. I happen to live in and represent a county, as does Deputy Byrne, which has benefited significantly from that, as have lots of parts of Ireland. We have seen progress in workers' rights and the enforcement of employment law in relation to this. I referenced a number of collective bargaining agreements. We want to see more. My job is to put in place a tax credit. People sign up and commit to adhering to certain things under the tax credit. I am making the point that those are policed or enforced by the Workplace Relations Commission primarily.”
“Regarding terms and conditions for film workers, it is not my place as Minister to dictate to creative professionals what their stance on pay and conditions should be. Rather, this is a decision for the workers themselves and for their unions to seek agreement in negotiations with employer representatives. It is not appropriate for legal rights to be linked only to one set of circumstances regarding tax credits. I want everybody's legal rights to be enforced regardless of the tax credit. It is important to recognise that the laws that underpin both copyright and employment rights apply regardless of whether a company applies for section 48.”
“The Deputy will be aware that an independent facilitator was retained by Screen Ireland in 2023 to meet key stakeholders wherein copyright concerns were discussed and identified directly with industry. As a result of this process, stakeholders have agreed interim best practice industry guidelines while pursuing a path towards a collective bargaining agreement. This is a positive step. Several collective bargaining agreements have been reached in the industry in recent years including construction crew and shooting crew agreements. These agreements provide for improved rates of pay, for standardised work practices and for an industry pension scheme. This demonstrates the scope for positive engagement in the industry and the genuine willingness to reach compromises beneficial for both parties.”
“Adjudication of adherence to employment legislation is not within my direct remit as Minister for Finance. Monitoring of compliance with employment rights legislation is primarily a matter for the Department of enterprise through the Workplace Relations Commission. If there are any issues to be raised with regard to the application of employment law, they should be brought to that Department. In relation to copyright, which is also within the remit of the Department of enterprise, my officials have directly engaged with relevant representative bodies to better understand issues relevant to the audiovisual sector. There are complex legal issues involved but processes are under way to address them.”
“I thank Deputy Boyd Barrett for raising this issue. I know it is an issue in which he has taken a keen interest since long before I was in this role. The Deputy and I, along with Deputy Ó Snodaigh, had some engagement on this matter during the Report Stage debate on the Finance Bill. Section 481 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 provides a 32% payable credit for eligible expenditure on film production in Ireland. The scheme is intended to act as a stimulus to indigenous film industry in the State, to create quality employment opportunities and to support the expression of Irish culture. The provision of quality employment forms part of the application process for the relief, as the Deputy said. Applicant companies are required to sign an undertaking of compliance with all relevant employment legislation.”
“We have taken a number of measures to try to assist with that, including the 9% VAT rate, the new timeline for the living wage and the decision not to expand the statutory sick scheme further beyond five days. I accept there are different views on those decisions in the House, but they were taken in recognition of the reality that when we have a bright idea in here, we do not always have to pay for it; it is the business that does. Auto-enrolment really needs to happen. As it rolls out, we will continue to engage and listen. We will look back long after we are all gone and say this was a really important moment to protect low-income workers in particular as they age. Future Forty suggests there will be many more low-income workers ageing and living longer, healthier lives in the future.”
“I was talking to the Swedish minister in Brussels the other day. I think this is something they did in Sweden many decades ago. It is a transformational decision. I accept that it is going to be a little difficult for people. We are asking people and employers to put a little aside at a challenging time, knowing it will create provision for them as they age above and beyond the State pension. The communications campaign is important, making sure everybody knows how it works and the obligations on everybody. I have heard good media engagement on that recently. It is important we keep that up. I am conscious of the pressures on small and medium businesses as I know the Deputy is. There will be different views in this House on this.”
“I was certainly not being flippant about the programme for Government commitments. I do not want anyone holding off on staying healthy until future budgets. These are issues that we will, of course, consider in the round, as we always do in advance of the budget. I was in Millstreet in west Cork recently to visit a community gym that is part-funded through Government grants. It was great to see. I was on the same rowing machine that now-President Connolly had been on when she was campaigning. It is the most famous rowing machine in Ireland because the President was on it, and they are very proud of that fact. It is a great community gym. It is an example of communities working together to create healthy communities and help themselves age in a good way. Deputies Clendennen and Byrne referred to auto-enrolment.”
“We are not powerless when we look at this document. We are all going to get older but we can get older and stay healthy. What can we do from a policy, health service and technology point of view to help make that more of a reality? On the issue of taxes for gyms, we look at all matters in the context of the budget. I would also point out that there are lots of ways you can keep fit out in the fresh air too.”
“Are we doing it at a fast enough pace? That is a very fair question from Deputy Clendennen. An objective answer is probably “No”. More broadly, there are very significant megatrends, as they call them in the document, coming at us. There are huge opportunities within that, and there are also huge challenges. We have taken a number of important steps, such as the establishment of what could effectively be sovereign wealth funds. The Future Ireland Fund and the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund are important steps, and running budgetary surpluses is helpful. The NDP provides clarity and €275.4 billion of funding out to 2035, and that it runs for longer than the lifetime of this Government is good. I will come back to the issue of gyms. Deputy Byrne is right regarding what we can do to positively age.”
“What I can tell the Deputy is that the trajectory of the tax bands for the coming years is what is outlined in the programme for Government. I look forward to debating that with the Deputy in the months and, God willing, years ahead. I thank Deputy Doherty for acknowledging this. The Future Forty document is not my document or the Deputy’s document. It is genuinely something that we should all embrace. It is produced by very able and informed officials and economic experts in the Department of Finance. It is as much for the Opposition as the Government; it is as much for the Oireachtas as the Executive. It will, no doubt, provide us with a useful debating tool, and hopefully inject, from everybody's perspective, a degree of evidence into all of the things that all of us say in these Houses, which the public rightly expect.”
“I thank Deputy Doherty for reminding me. Once we publish the medium-term fiscal framework, which will set out the expenditure trajectory to the end of the decade, it will enable me, in my new role, to look at that.”