O’Brien pledges to scrap levies and charges for all homes
HOUSING Minister Darragh O’Brien’s plan to scrap development levies and water connection charges for all homes until the end of the year will dominate the first meeting of the newly established Cabinet Housing Committee (CHC) today.
He told the Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis at the weekend he is bringing a paper to Cabinet with the proposal.
One Government source said: ‘This will be a key element in the faster delivery of affordable housing which is the number-one priority for the Government.’
One of Simon Harris’s first acts as Taoiseach was to re-establish the CHC, and unlike previous initiatives by former taoiseach Leo Varadkar, the move is not perceived to be hostile to Mr O’Brien.
Another source said: ‘Darragh is delighted. Who needs a Tánaiste when the Taoiseach is backing you?’
A spokesman for the Taoiseach’s office said: ‘We are working to renew the development levies waiver to build more homes at less cost.’
Other objectives include extending the Help to Buy Scheme and increasing the Rent Tax Credit to
‘Just in time for the election campaign’
more than €1,000, to help people save towards a deposit.
The move by Mr O’Brien will be welcomed by the Construction Industry Federation which has warned that to build more homes ‘significant changes in areas such as planning’ are required.
The CHC is also expected to drive the final decision on the Coalition’s new house-building targets, to be published in the autumn.
One source said: ‘The new targets will be published just in time for the beginning of the election campaign: which is a fortuitous coincidence.’
Mr Harris will also meet with the Road Safety Authority (RSA) and relevant ministers to discuss trends in traffic collisions and measures to address the reversal of progress made in recent years on fatalities and serious injuries on our roads.
One source said: ‘The Taoiseach is eager to meet the RSA ahead of chairing a meeting of the Government’s road safety ministerial committee in the coming weeks.’