In five day's time we will have the annual budget. True to form, most of the major announcements will be leaked over the weekend. The State is in an unprecedented situation. Billions are available to invest yet there is a poverty of ambition and no vision. We live in a rich country that feels so poor. It is a country of winners and losers. Ireland has a chronic infrastructural deficit. Despite recent increases in the capital budget, as a percentage of overall Government spending it remains below where it was in 2008. Two weeks ago, the Minister, Deputy Chambers said you would have €3 billion extra to spend on infrastructure from the sale of AIB shares. The summer economic statement outlines an increase in capital spending of €1.7 billion under the national development plan, up to €14.5 billion, bolstered by what I have described as the gimmick of €750 million of so-called windfall receipts. That leaves a gap of €1.3 billion. Is the Minister for Finance planning to formally change the capital spending allocations? Will there be a new national development plan or are we going to get more fiscal gimmickry in this budget? Will the Tánaiste confirm today that the Government intends to increase the budget figures that were published in July in the summer economic statement? We need to invest more, not in gold-plated bike sheds or security huts but in our hospitals, public transport, retrofitting and most critically in housing. The greatest workers' rights issue remains housing. Prices rose by 10% last year. Affordability is the problem. We need much-increased supply of over 50,000 new homes a year. Government policies like Help to Buy have actually hiked up prices. The ESRI confirmed this last year. It has driven demand rather than boosting supply. It is making homes dearer. Reports today suggest the Minister wants the cap to increase above half a million. Is it Fianna Fáil policy to subsidise the cost of housing costing more than half a million? Driving development needs increased funding from the State and policy certainty. Planning law has been changed almost yearly in recent years. Crucially, the residential zoned land tax has become a political football. We still do not know if it is going to be in place next year. We do not have a revised housing target from the target and no clear sense if it will invest more when the private market and developers have failed to build enough. Housing for All proposes to build 10,000 social housing units next year and 6,400 affordable and cost rental homes. That is barely any increase on this year, and you say Housing for All is the only show in town.

The Labour Party will outline its budget plans tomorrow to increase that by up to 6,000 more units a year, focused on public and affordable homes. Can the Tánaiste guarantee that the residential zoned land tax will be operational next year? Does he agree with increasing Help to Buy for homes costing more than half a million? Are the Minister for Finance and the Minister for public expenditure going to increase capital spending above what was in the summer economic statement? Will the budget commit to increasing the number of social and affordable homes that will be built, way beyond what is committed to in the Housing for All policy?

I thank the Deputy for his remarks. I would argue that there is no poverty of ambition. This year we are spending up to €13 billion plus on capital infrastructure, which is significantly higher than previous years. The rate and level of capital expenditure during this Government's term has been significantly higher than previous Governments. The challenge with capital expenditure, of course, is the balance of making sure you do not overheat the economy in terms of the allocation of additional billions. What we have done, which shows real ambition for the future, is establish the Future Ireland Fund and the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund, where we are essentially future-proofing infrastructure for the long haul and giving confidence and certainty to industry, to the housing sector and the other sectors, that we intend to maintain expenditure levels or increase them progressively over the next number of years notwithstanding the potential of cyclical changes. There will be ups and downs in the economy, revenue could go down but through the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature fund, we are saying we will have a fund there to make sure we get the metro done, get the roads we want done built, get more schools and hospitals built and infrastructure more generally.

There will be a release of additional capital from the AIB shares. It is fairly clear that this will be allocated to infrastructure, principally housing, to future-proof housing expenditure right through the decade, and water infrastructure. It is key, particularly for the towns and villages across the country, that we mandate Irish Water to do more with local authorities in respect of villages, towns and the water treatment provision and plants in such towns. Of course, investment in the grid is going to be essential in terms of the wind energy transformation that will occur in this country but will require certainty around capital investment in the grid over the medium term. Those three areas, housing, water and the grid, are essential pillars in terms of the future development of the Irish economy and Irish society. The Apple funding as well will be allocated principally to those areas, although no final decisions have been taken. Political parties no doubt will establish their priorities in respect of that. This Government is quite entitled to outline its priorities in respect of the capital and I have given three key areas there. We also have surpluses. The issue actually is not an absence of capital, the issue is how we develop a sustainable programme of capital investment over a decade, and how we can shelter that from any winds or storms that might come our way in the intervening period. That is the objective.

I thank the Tánaiste. I disagree with him. The problem is a lack of ambition and a lack of vision. That has been the consistent pattern here from what I describe as a very conservative coalition. Ireland is a rich country, but the Government presides over on that continues to feel poor.

I want to put one key question to the Tánaiste on the status of the residential zoned land tax. The ESRI did not put a tooth in it today in pointing out that land comprises about 20% of the final cost of a home. We know that the Government cannot control material costs, labour costs and other costs that go into developing homes, but it has the responsibility to use the tax system responsibly in order to disincentivise land hoarding. It can make a real difference overnight. Will it introduce the residential zoned land tax next week? Will that be confirmed in the budget? I would appreciate an update from the Tánaiste on that. That is critically important. Is the Government going to continue to put the primacy of land ownership before the public good?

It was this Government that introduced the RZLT legislation.

It has not introduced an actual tax.

Unless I have mistaken the Labour position, I think all parties in the House were of the view that productive farmers, people who were actively working their land, should not be captured by the RZLT. I do not know if that is Labour's position.

They can have the land rezoned.

It certainly is the position of the three party leaders. The mechanisms devised to enable farmers not to be covered have not worked; that is the reality. Therefore, discussions are under way. They are being led by the Minister for Finance. The three party leaders have been apprised of that proposal, the objective of which is to exclude active farmers, people who did not seek rezoning or have no intention of rezoning and who want to continue with a bona fide economic activity. That is a legitimate point. There are other issues as well. The view is to have that issue resolved before the budget and bring the legislation in.

Will it be resolved?

Yes.