Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion. We have a crisis right across the country. Sinn Féin recognised that we have a housing crisis more than two years ago. I hope that is now accepted. It is all too apparent and clear to see. In counties such as Laois one can see it every day. There is an absence of affordable housing and people are being pushed from the market with ever-rising prices and denied the opportunity to buy their own home or avail of social housing.

Plans for local authority housing in County Laois amount to 36 houses in Portlaoise, ten in Ballyroan, six in Mountrath, ten in Mountmellick and 20 in Portarlington. That is a total of 87 council houses. To put the situation in context, the council waiting list is 1,800 households so at the current rate of building it would take up to 23 years to address the list.

That brings me to affordability. The maximum income threshold for entitlement to social housing is too low at €25,000. For a family of four in County Laois it is €26,750. A person earning that amount cannot afford to buy a house. Those who are over the limit need an affordable home. Sinn Féin supports the right of people to be able to buy an affordable house in a properly mixed area. We need a plentiful supply of housing. I heard the Minister and other Ministers say that if one had a great supply of housing the prices would go down but a plentiful supply does not guarantee lower prices. In 2006 more than 90,000 units were built and prices skyrocketed. I remember it. One could not buy a house. Prices were rising by the week. We need to moderate house prices and have a plentiful supply of social housing and affordable housing and rent controls will help the Minister to achieve that.

We also need to amend Part V of the Planning and Development Act to provide 10% of new developments for affordable housing. The affordable housing must be properly dispersed in an estate. Developers should not be allowed to lump social and affordable housing into one corner. I can point the Minister to terrible examples. We must disperse housing. The estate I live in has affordable and social housing that is dispersed around the estate. That works well and one cannot tell the difference between housing types or whether a house is a council house, an affordable house or a private house as they all look the same.

Investment is also required. I accept that will cost money. Irish pension funds are being invested abroad and could be used to finance social and affordable housing. My colleague has made suggestions. The credit union movement reckons that it has more than €8 billion to invest. Progress is at a snail's pace. We need the housing programme to be accelerated dramatically.

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