I raise the plight of first-time house buyers, given the announcement that new charges will range between €6,000 and €28,000 for development works on new houses. Two years ago a first-time house buyer was able to get a €3,000 new house grant, but that was abolished and replaced with a 1% increase in VAT to 13.5% for building materials. Now such buyers face an extra charge of between €6,000 and €28,000. This means that if an average of €10,000 is charged on each of the 50,000 houses being built, that is a direct stealth tax of €500 million which used to be funded from the public capital programme. If 60,000 houses are built, then €600 million will be raised by this direct stealth tax.

Young couples or first-time buyers making arrangements for borrowings of €130,000 or €150,000, now have to raise an extra €25,000 to €30,000. Under the stewardship of the Taoiseach and his Government, house prices have doubled in the last two years and he is now directly imposing serious, crucifying stealth charges on new house buyers and on young couples in particular. How can he stand over this? How does it measure up to his own statements about wanting more houses in rural Ireland and wanting everyone to have the opportunity to own their own home? This decision, brought in two years ago by Deputy Cullen, means there is an imposition of between €500 million and €600 million in stealth charges directly on new house owners and young couples. Where does the Taoiseach stand on that and what does he propose to do about it?

We should acknowledge that the construction industry and Government policies are dealing very adequately with the supply of houses for the first time in a long while, with over 60,000 houses being built.

What about the price?

That is the highest number of houses per thousand people in any country in Europe and it is an extraordinary achievement for the Government to be dealing with this all over the country.

Is the Taoiseach building them himself?

I note that Deputies all over the country say planning is the number one issue raised with them by constituents, particularly by those trying to build one-off houses.

What about the price?

For Deputy Kenny's information, development charges have been part of the planning system in Ireland since its introduction since 1964. They pay for local authority infrastructure necessary for new developments, so this did not come in three years ago but in 1964. Due to widespread inconsistency in their application, the Minister for the Environment and Local Government – it was Deputy Dempsey, not Deputy Cullen – brought in the Planning and Development Act. He introduced new provisions requiring local authorities to prepare schemes setting out how development contributions would apply in their area. The final decision on the amounts levied under these schemes is a matter for the elected representatives in local councils.

People still have to raise the money.

The new power was granted to councillors under the Planning and Development Act 2000 under which the money is ring-fenced to pay for facilities servicing new developments. It cannot be used to pay for any other issue such as benchmarking or other local authority services.

Benchmarking is the problem.

The Taoiseach without interruption.

Development charges pay for the local authority infrastructure necessary to facilitate new developments, such as roads, sewerage services and other amenities. The system of charging development contributions under the Local Government (Planning and Development) Act 1963 was widely criticised as being too haphazard, unevenly applied across the country and totally lacking in transparency. It was suggested frequently in this House that the system should be amended, therefore new provisions were brought in under the Planning and Development Act 2000 whereby local authorities have to prepare schemes setting out how development contributions will apply to their area. This is an attempt to bring order to the new system and I hope it does so. The Act also expanded the types of facility and infrastructure which could be provided using development contributions to include recreational and community facilities – cycle ways and so on.

Swimming pools.

This was to ensure that new developments would not be built without proper facilities, which was the problem in the past. Estates were built all over the country, particularly in west Dublin, which had no proper facilities.

More double taxes. It should be funded from the speculators' profits.

Now developers are able to contribute. This is an advance in social thinking and should be welcomed.

I call Deputy Kenny and ask that he be allowed to continue without interruption.

The Taoiseach and his Government were supposed to come up with a way of dealing with house prices but that is not what he is doing here. It is perfectly obvious that the only decentralisation we will have from the Government is decentralisation of the tax burden. I am grateful to the Taoiseach for his clarification as to who introduced this, the Minister, Deputy Dempsey, or the Minister, Deputy Cullen, as confusion reigns abroad because Ministers in the Government seem to abdicate collective responsibility whenever steel is required. The Minister, Deputy Cullen, and the Minister, Deputy Walsh, are against the smoking regulations, the Minister, Deputy Michael Smith, has dispensed with the Hanly report and the Minister of State, Deputy Parlon, contradicts the Taoiseach in terms of the price of land.

There is no division between the Minister, Deputy Walsh, and the Minister, Deputy McCreevy, on budgets – they are at one on that.

The Taoiseach promised to deal with house prices for young couples. In two years the position has moved from a point where a €3,000 grant was available to them to it being abolished and replaced by a 1% increase in building materials and VAT followed by a stealth charge of between €6,000 and €28,000. The Taoiseach has failed to deal with a central issue for thousands of people across the country and, in that sense, the Government has been an appalling disaster. The Government has blown the money in recent years that was available for these kinds of developments. It is not the developers who are contributing to this infrastructural development but the person who will have to pay these stealth charges. A sum of €600 million will have to be paid in development charges for houses followed by extra charges because local authorities will not be funded for their benchmarking requirements by central Government. In that context, will the Government decide to contribute or pay the benchmarking element of €160 million to local authorities to save young people and first-time buyers from being imposed on or penalised by even further stealth charges as we move into next year?

I must again make the point – Deputy Kenny would not want the facts to be known – that we are providing more houses for our citizens—

What about all the people trying to buy a house?

More people than ever are trying to do so.

There is only one Leader of Fine Gael and that is Deputy Kenny.

I know the Members opposite have been instructed to interrupt once I have spoken for five seconds, but regardless of that I make the point again that as against the United Kingdom or any other country we are pro rata building more houses than are being built anywhere else – 60,000 houses. The best we ever achieved was 35,000 houses.

They are dearer than anywhere else.

Nobody can buy them. The Taoiseach should answer the question

The Deputies opposite should check that out.

Under the Planning and Development Act, we expanded the type of facilities and infrastructure which could be provided using development contribution schemes. That measure was limited for years in that it could be used only for roads and sewerage schemes. It was correct that in the development of an estate proper facilities should be available. The development contribution schemes now include recreation and communities facilities and other leisure facilities and schemes, and this is a good measure.

Those regulations were only introduced in 2002.

Failures in the past in building large housing estates led to discontentment in communities and to social problems on occasions, but now local representatives are fully involved and local people have a direct input into the process.

They have no option.

That was the purpose of Planning and Development Act 2000 in regard to this area, and it works effectively.

The Government allowed a grace period of two years to enable it to get over the general election and the regulations were only implemented in 2002.

I ask the Deputy to allow Deputy Rabbitte to speak.

The Deputy says one thing at home and another thing here.

The Members opposite are hypocrites on this.

I ask the Minister to allow Deputy Rabbitte to speak without interruption.

Deputy McCormack is not the Leader of the Labour Party, I call Deputy Rabbitte.

The Minister needs to do more recycling of himself.

The only people who need to be recycled around here are those in the Fine Gael Party.

The Minister has more experience of that than anybody else.

The Minister should withdraw that remark.

He should leave the House.

He can go out for a cigarette.

The Minister, Deputy Cullen, needs a smoke break.

Let him out for a smoke.