Paschal Donohoe has rejected Sinn Féin criticism that Budget 2024 is a 'budget for landlords' and not for renters.
The Public Expenditure Minister was speaking after a budget worth €6.4 billion was announced earlier in the Dáil.
Increased tax credits, cuts to the USC, and an increase in the threshold before an individual pays the higher rate of tax all featured.
Childcare costs will be cut by one-quarter later next year, while there will be increases in Social Protection payments across the board.
Rental tax credits will increase to €750, while small landlords will benefit from a tax incentive to encourage them to stay in the market.
Sinn Féin has claimed the budget will do nothing to address the crisis in housing – labelling it 'a budget for landlords'.
Minister Donohoe told The Hard Shoulder the criticism is unfair and untrue.
"The tenant credit for next year of €750 will involve use of €300 million of the country's money. The landlord credit is €112 million," he said.
"What we are doing from a tenant perspective is many multiples of where we are with the measure with regard to landlords.
"With the criticism of the measure we've brought to landlords, what we've done there in providing an income disregard if a landlord will stay in the rental sector over a number of years.
"There'll always be criticism that it should be bigger and there should be more support available, but it's like that with every aspect of a budget.
"Whenever you bring forward a measure, understandably, those who are involved in the sector will always say it should be bigger.
"We need to make sure we can afford the entire package, and we've done that in the budget."
'A bigger rental sector'
Minister Donohoe said the country needs smaller landlords.
"This is a critique you hear from Sinn Féin often: in their view, anything that we do to help landlords is automatically a bad thing.
"We want a bigger rental sector: how are we going to get to a bigger rental sector unless we stop landlords leaving and get more small landlords in the sector in the future?
"How can we provide more rental accommodation if we don't have more landlords who are willing to do it?"
Minister Donohoe said the housing measures announced mean the State should hit its target for the sector.
"I'm very confident now we'll meet our housing target for this year," he said
"I'm very confident that for next year we'll do even better and be able to build on the 400 people every week that are now buying their own home directly.
"We've always acknowledged that we want to build even more homes than are laid out in the target for Housing for All, but we had to be realistic in recognising that our construction sector would close down during the pandemic.
"At a time of full employment, getting more people to do more work in Ireland is more difficult than it ever has been - so that has been a challenge."
Housing targets
Minister Donohoe said they could look at raising the housing target in the new year.
"For me, I'd probably only consider if we should revise our housing target for 2024 once we're exactly clear on how many homes we're going to build in 2023," he said.
"Obviously it'll take a few more months for that to be clear.
"The impact of the measure today will now mean we will at least hit [housing targets]," he added.
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