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Pringle calls Government’s concrete levy a further punishment of mica-affected households
- Updated: 5th October 2022
Independent TD for Donegal, Thomas Pringle, called the Government’s concrete levy a further punishment of mica-affected households and asked why they didn’t impose a levy on building sector profits.
Addressing the Dáil on Tuesday evening, Deputy Pringle said: “This is just a further punishment of the victims of the mica scandal. And that’s what’s really shocking about this.”
The deputy said: “The victims of the mica scandal are still waiting for the redress scheme to be announced, and to be open, but yet they see that the costs that they’re going to have to face will be increased by this levy that you’re proposing through this budget. That is completely wrong.
“But it’s typical of what this government is about and the lazy way that this government does what it’s doing,” he said.
The deputy said, “At best, what can be said for it is that it’s extremely lazy. Because you introduce a levy knowing that it’s going to be lumped on to the costs of the people who have to pay for the building work.”
He said: “You can dress it up as being a levy on the building industry, when it’s actually a levy on the people who pay to get work done.”
He asked why Government didn’t instead impose a levy on the profits of the building sector.
Deputy Pringle said: “At least then there would be some semblance of your actually wanting to go after the companies, rather than going after the individuals and going after the citizens of the country.
“Because the reality is that already all citizens are paying for the redress,” he said.
The deputy said: “And now you’re asking people, you’re forcing people who are trying to build a house to pay double. Because they’ll be paying through their taxation, their general taxation anyway.”
Deputy Pringle said: “That’s typical of the light-touch regulations that’s been espoused by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael over many years.”
The deputy said: “In this country we seem to follow slavishly everything that happens in England and we introduce everything a couple of years later after it happens in England. And we heard earlier on about a levy that’s being implemented in the UK but there’s no mention of that being implemented here because that would go after your friends, the builders.
“And that’s the problem,” he said.
