'No justification' for plan to cut mortgage interest relief support, says Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty has warned Government there is "no justification" in leaked plans to cut the mortgage interest relief support in today's Budget 2018 announcements, .
Speaking before Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe reveals the details of the financial plan to the Dáil at 1pm today, Mr Doherty said rumours the relief could be slashed will potentially wipe out savings in other Budget areas.
Under mooted plans leaked in recent days, it has been claimed that mortgage interest relief will be reduced to 75% in order to use the money elsewhere.
However, speaking to reporters outside the Dáil this morning, Mr Doherty warned: "I think the phasing out of this relief will come as a severe blow to anybody who bought at the peak of the housing crisis.
"I don't see any justification for it at this time and it will hit people, we still have about 80,000 households in mortgage arrears and this is only going to make their situation worse," he said, adding he was "quite surprised" the move would be considered as it was a red line issue during Fianna Fáil's "fake outrage" Budget talks.
Pearse Doherty has been out ahead of #Budget18 and he's not impressed about news mortgage interest relief is to be cut pic.twitter.com/YrZ0ww3079
— Christina Finn (@christinafinn8) October 10, 2017
Meanwhile, Mr Doherty has separately sought to claim the Government's plan to use Nama to kick-start developer property building is, in fact, a Sinn Féin policy that was put forward more than a year ago.
Asked about the possible move this morning, Mr Doherty said: "This is something Sinn Féin has been proposing since last year, in fact we raised this with the Minister for Finance Michael Noonan last year and he told us there was no need to go down this road.
"In a couple of years time when Nama is wound up what we really don't need is €3bn in cash handed to us which could only be used in debt services.
"We had the good idea [not Fine Gael], we argued the idea last year, we had the legislation written, we sent it to Leo Varadkar and it's before the Seanad," he said.
