Sinn Féin would pursue ‘radical’ alternative housing policy, says Doherty

Pearse Doherty of Sinn Féin said his party would pursue "a radical departure" from the housing policy of successive Irish governments if elected.

This would involve a doubling of capital investment in housing and “specific interventions in the market” combined with reforms in planning to deliver more affordable homes, he told an event hosted by the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA).

He also said his party would remove the tax advantages afforded to foreign investment funds, which are buying up apartment developments in urban areas, and driving up prices in the process.

Mr Doherty described the fact that one in six renters was leasing from a fund as “worrying”.

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“We need to take away tax advantages from funds,” he said, noting these entities were exempt from corporation tax on rental income and from capital gains tax (CGT) when disposing of the asset.

“Those types of incentives unleash more firepower, which pushes up house prices for everybody,” he said.

Mr Doherty, Sinn Féin’s finance spokesman, said the chronic shortage of affordable homes to rent or buy was eroding incomes and reducing living standards, and posed a threat to Ireland’s economic security.

This “is a direct result of government policy – a refusal to invest in affordable supply over the past decade and a reliance on policies that have utterly failed”, he said.

He said Sinn Féin would impose a blanket rent freeze for a period of three years in conjunction with a tax credit for renters to counter what he described as “runaway rents”.

The housing crisis combined with the lack of affordable childcare was undermining competitiveness in the Irish economy.

Wealth tax

On tax, Mr Doherty said his party was in favour of imposing a 3 per cent wealth or solidarity tax on individuals earning more than €140,000.

"Wealth inequality has widened not just in Ireland but right across globe, and this has accelerated as a result of the pandemic, so introducing a wealth tax is a measure we support," he said.

However, Mr Doherty said he did not expect that the Commission on Taxation, the body set up to advise the Government on how to finance the State, would advocate such a measure.

He also said his party was steadfastly against the Special Assignee Relief Programme, which provides generous tax benefits for multinational staff moving to Ireland, describing it as “not fair and not equitable”.

Mr Doherty said his party supported the new global agreement on tax, which would see an end to Ireland’s 12.5 per cent headline rate, noting it recognised “the need to fundamentally reform the international tax landscape to reflect the new realities of the global economy”.

“Remaining outside the agreement would have damaged Ireland’s reputation and our economy,” Mr Doherty said.

Separately, he said the pandemic had underlined the fundamental weakness of the fiscal rules laid down in the EU’s stability and growth pact.

“Sinn Féin has long argued that the fiscal rules are not fit for purpose – [they are] overly complex, undermining principles of sovereignty and economically damaging,” he said.

He said the rules needed to be replaced by new fiscal standards, which would allow for greater spending in healthcare, housing and social inequality.

The EU’s strict spending rules were suspended during the pandemic but are due to be reintroduced next year.