Put €65bn investment fund into housing - Tóibín

The Aontú leader, Peadar Tóibín TD has said that if the government put the Corporation Tax Surplus into an investment fund "there will be hell to pay".

Speaking last Tuesday, Deputy Tóibín said: "Today's three main headlines are that there are almost 670,000 people in Ireland living below the poverty line, according to a new report. The next headline is that more than 160,000 people in this country are in arrears on their gas bills. The main news item, however, is that the government will have a corporation tax receipt of €65bn over the next couple of years due and that they're meeting today because they don't know what to do with it and there's talk of an investment fund.

"Now is not the time to be talking about establishing a rainy day fund - it is lashing rain, and it has been lashing rain for months. The government need to spend their surplus in tax receipts on the provision of housing. It is unforgiveable that the housing budget has gone underspent the past economic year.

"My constituents are ringing me, or calling into the office showing us their bills, wondering how they'll pay them. People are contacting my constituency office hungry, and homeless. We have record youth emigration, we have record homelessness. The greens will have lost all sense of a moral compass if they don't push for increased spending towards helping the vulnerable around the cabinet table today - an investment fund should not supersede the need for housing spending," concluded Tóibín.