Government ‘did not need deal to survive’
Leo hits back at claims over confidence motion
TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar has insisted the Government did not need a socalled ‘grubby deal’ to ensure it survived a tight confidence motion.
The Irish Daily Mail revealed yesterday that part of a deal to secure the votes of the Regional Independent Group (RIG), in a crucial vote to end the eviction ban, could cost upwards of €12million.
Speaking in Washington yesterday, the Taoiseach tried to play down the importance of the support of Independent TDs in the crunch vote, which would have collapsed the Government and triggered an election if it was lost.
He said: ‘We never thought we needed the votes. Ever since the Government was formed we have always had a comfortable majority in the Dáil.
‘We’ve never required the votes of Independents.’
However, at the time of the vote last year, the Government’s majority was just one, after Green Party TDs Patrick Costello and Neasa Hourigan lost the party whip for voting against the Government a week earlier, on a motion about the ownership of the National Maternity Hospital.
There was also speculation that one or more Government TDs might vote against the lifting of the eviction ban.
Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien brokered the deal with the RIG – comprised of Independent TDs Michael Lowry, Denis Naughten, Michael Lowry, Cathal Berry, Peter Fitzpatrick, Matt Shanahan, Verona Murphy, Noel Grealish and Peadar Tóibín – in a bid for them to vote with the Government.
The Mail yesterday revealed that senior civil servants strongly pushed back on the deal, involving changes to the Fair Deal scheme, which subsidises the cost of nursing home care.
Part of the scheme allows applicants to rent out their homes – taxfree – to help with costs.
The RIG demanded that the amount left untaxed be increased from 60% to 100%.
Asked why the Government had then acceded to their demands, the Taoiseach said the Government agrees to political requests ‘all the time’ and that some of the proposals were requested from within Government too.
He said there were people ‘in my own parliamentary party who were… saying to me that in the middle of a housing crisis there were houses that were vacant and not occupied’.
‘There were houses that were vacant and unoccupied because the person who lived there had moved into a nursing home and the family didn’t see any particular value in renting it out, because they would lose the rental income because of the way the scheme was set up,’ he added.
Ahead of the Dáil vote on the eviction ban last March, Labour Party TD Ged Nash called on Mr Varadkar to reveal the cost of what he called a ‘grubby deal’.
Asked about the cost yesterday, the Taoiseach insisted he didn’t know but agreed to find out.
The 100% rate leaves less money available to subsidise nursing home costs, compounding the losses to the taxpayer.
The concession to the RIG was one of eight emergency housing measures they demanded to support the Government on a confidence motion last March after it lifted the eviction ban.
After changes to the Fair Deal were announced, Fianna Fáil TD and Minister for Older People Mary Butler broke ranks to warn they could lead to ‘elder abuse’ and people entering into nursing homes prematurely, as families sought to cash in on the changes.
‘There were houses that were vacant’