More tax breaks for developers in Budget 2026 is not the solution to the housing crisis and risks repeating mistakes of the past, according to Social Democrats TD Rory Hearne.<\/p>\n
Deputy Hearne, who is the party\u2019s housing spokesperson, said:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been reported today that the government will reduce VAT in the Budget for new apartments in a bid to increase housing supply. This failed approach is straight out of the Fianna F\u00e1il\/Fine Gael playbook and continues a long tradition of the State rolling out the red carpet for\u00a0big developers and investment funds.<\/p>\n
\u201cIronically, it comes at the same time as one of Ireland\u2019s largest homebuilders, Glenveagh, announced soaring profits and revenues. For the first six months of this year, the company\u2019s revenues jumped by 125 per cent to \u20ac341.6 million, while gross profit rose by 141 per cent to \u20ac66.8 million. Based on these figures, the profit margin per house built is close to 20 per cent.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the D\u00e1il next week, I will introduce my Developer Profits Transparency Bill. This will introduce a requirement for property developers who are in receipt of State subsidies to publish annual financial statements.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere developers are receiving public money, there has to be transparency on the profits being made.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of offering further tax incentives to developers, the government should be building affordable and social homes at scale on public land, delivered by Approved Housing Bodies, local authorities and builders directly employed by the State.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis could be funded through a Homes for Ireland Savings Account (HISA), as proposed by the Social Democrats, to leverage some of the \u20ac160 billion in Irish savings for investment in public housing.\u201d<\/p>\n
September 25, 2025<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" More tax breaks for developers in Budget 2026 is not the solution to the housing crisis and risks repeating mistakes of the past, according to Social Democrats TD Rory Hearne. Deputy Hearne, who is the party\u2019s housing spokesperson, said: \u201cIt has been reported today that the government will reduce VAT in the Budget for new […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12981,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,7,510],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-housing-crisis","category-press-release","category-rory-hearne"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n