Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the officials for being with us today and for the work they and all their colleagues are doing in the Department on Housing for All. I think any independent analysis would conclude that Housing for All is the most comprehensive housing plan in the history of the State and the best resourced. It has significant funding and legislative changes backing it up. The commitments to eliminate homelessness by 2030 and to prioritise social housing are very important. In my area, in the constituency of Dublin Central, this new social housing is the first we have seen in a decade. It is on Dominic Street and North King Street and at Ellis Court. Ellis Court speaks as well to the reusing of existing built structures. The priority, therefore, is not just new builds but also the fastest and most sustainable way of increasing our housing stock using existing vacant properties. I greatly support and very much welcome this activity. When we talk about housing, though, and I come at this from a city perspective, Dublin City Council, DCC, has a pipeline of approximately 15,000 homes in various stages of design, development, construction and completion. This is welcome. It is the biggest housing programme DCC has undertaken in decades. It is being resourced to deliver the programme and it is great to see this housing coming onstream. For the first time in decades, we are seeing new permanent homes in the city.

I wish to focus my first line of questioning on the delivery of affordable housing in the city. It is easy to recognise that Dublin is the part of the country with the highest demand for housing. Dublin City Council and other providers will say it is the most challenging space in which to try to build new homes. Approved housing bodies, AHBs, private developers and the local authority will all say that the sites in the city are more complex and more costly as a consequence. Regarding all the new builds, we all know the cost of construction inflation has driven the cost of housing up in the city. We are on a par now with other international cities in this regard. The need for affordable housing, therefore, cannot be greater in any other part of the country than it is in Dublin city. What action is the Department taking to ensure that priority is being given to the delivery of affordable housing in the city? Before the passing of the Affordable Housing Act 2021, we did not have any form of affordable housing. Now, legislatively, since July 2021 we have affordable purchase and affordable cost-rental for the first time. It feels like the delivery in the city is slow, though. What is the Department doing to address this aspect and to accelerate the delivery of affordable housing in Dublin city?