Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move:

That Dáil Éireann: condemns Budget 2024 for:

— providing no additional voted capital expenditure on 2023 levels;

— not increasing the Government's inadequate social and affordable housing targets;

— excluding reforms of the public spending code to speed up the delivery of social or affordable housing;

— including no new measures to tackle dereliction and vacancy;

— including no new measures to reduce the levels of homelessness; and

— extending policies that push up house prices out to 2025;

notes that under the current Government:

— house prices have increased 28 per cent, costing on average €70,000 more;

— rents have increased by 25 per cent costing on average €3,700 more per year;

— homelessness, including child homelessness, has increased by 47 per cent;

— social housing output has been 33 per cent below target, leaving a shortfall of 8,527 homes from 2020 to 2022;

— just 1,401 social homes of a target of 9,100 were delivered by June 2023;

— zero affordable homes were delivered in 2020 or 2021;

— just 1,007 affordable homes were delivered in 2022, 50 per cent behind target;

— only 123 affordable homes of a target of 3,500 were delivered by June 2023;

— over €1 billion of voted capital expenditure for social and affordable homes went unspent from 2020 to 2022;

— over €1 billion of general Government capital expenditure, including voted capital expenditure, Approved Housing Bodies borrowing and Land Development Agency funding, went unspent in 2022; and

— at the end of September 2023, less than half of the allocated €4 billion general Government expenditure for housing was spent;

further notes, with concern, that the lack of affordable housing is:

— undermining public services including education, healthcare, social care and the Gardaí;

— impacting on investment, competitiveness and jobs in the private sector;

— forcing an entire generation with good education and job prospects to emigrate; and

— driving increased levels of adult and child homelessness; and

calls on the Government to:

— immediately increase the voted capital expenditure allocation for the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage for 2024, to increase social and affordable housing targets to at least 21,000 in 2024, including 13,000 social homes, 4,000 affordable purchase homes and 4,000 affordable rental homes;

— urgently reform the public spending code in order to increase and accelerate social and affordable housing delivery;

— ensure that at least 4,000 vacant and derelict homes are brought back into use in 2024;

— introduce a three-year ban on rent increases and transform and expand the current renters credit to ensure it provides a full month's rent back into every private renters pocket through a refundable tax credit; and

— include an emergency response to address the escalating homelessness crisis including a doubling of housing first tenancies and the provision of 1,000 social homes to end homelessness for over 55's in a single year and reduce child homelessness.

At the Fianna Fáil Ard-Fheis at the weekend, its leader, the Tánaiste, said that the Government was objectively making progress on housing. Three and a half years into this Government and the Minister's term of office, let us look at the progress that has been made. In those three and a half years, house prices on average have increased by 28%. That is on average an extra €70,000 for the purchase of a home. In fact, while the Government's counter-motion states that house prices are beginning to moderate, what it fails to mention is that new house prices are not moderating. In fact, the most recent data show they are up by 11% in the last 12 months, in part because of the Government's inflationary demand-side policies.

Rents continue to rise out of control. They have risen by 25% during the Minister's term of office. It is now almost €4,000 more expensive per year for new rents than it was before this Government was formed. Homelessness continues to rise month on month, with a 47% increase in both adult homelessness and child homelessness since June 2020. The Minister's personal legacy is going to be child homelessness; the largest levels of child homelessness since modern records began because there is no sign as of yet of those numbers changing.

With respect to public housing, the Minister's targets, as he knows, were always too low to begin with but he has consistently failed to meet his new-build social housing targets, as well as the delivery of affordable purchase and affordable cost-rental homes. The Minister says regularly, and he will say it again today I am sure, that 30,000 new homes will be built this year, as they were last year, and that is correct. The facts cannot be denied. However, that is approximately 20,000 new homes less than what is actually needed so really, rather than a celebration of success it is an admission of defeat. The Minister is not meeting the required number of new homes that are needed. The Minister said that 500 first-time buyers are drawing down mortgages every week and again, that is correct, but we know from Banking and Payments Federation Ireland that 70% of those are buying second-hand homes. They cannot afford to buy new homes because of the way in which the Government's policies are pushing up house prices.

The reality is that the Minister is not making progress, he is making things worse and to add insult to injury, when it comes to housing budget 2024 is going to make things even worse again. There is no new capital in the Minister's housing Vote. There is not a single cent extra on the voted capital expenditure for 2023. There is no change or increase in the Government's pitifully low targets for social or affordable housing. There are no new measures to tackle the escalating level of homelessness and yet we continue to be committed to policies like the so-called help-to-buy scheme and controversial shared equity loan scheme, which push up house prices and make it ever more difficult for people to be able to afford their own homes.

There is an alternative, however. Year after year, we publish a detailed budget document that sets out very clearly what that alternative looks like. Again today, we published our detailed critique of the Government's budget and our proposals. It is possible to dramatically increase the delivery of social, affordable cost-rental and affordable purchase homes. The minimum that is required is 21,000 units per year. That would need an additional €1.7 billion between voted capital and approved housing body, AHB, borrowing above what the Government has provided for in the budget. That would provide for at least 8,000 genuinely affordable homes for renters but crucially for buyers as well. It would allow us to ensure that at least 4,000 vacant and derelict properties could be brought back into active use, and 2,000 new homes through new building technologies.

We also set out a very clear provision as to how we could end homelessness for the over-55s in a single year. There should not be a single person over the age of 55 in emergency accommodation. Given the numbers of people in that situation, ending it within a year would be very easily achieved. However, we have gone further and shown how the use of new building technologies and emergency planning and procurement powers could allow us to significantly reduce the number of families with children through innovative use of infill rightsizing developments. We have also shown the Minister what a real renter's tax credit looks like, not the badly designed and underfunded one he has provided for that half of renters cannot or are not accessing. It will be swallowed up with rent increases because the Minister has not banned those.

When we look at it in the round, the budget the Government has agreed and put in place for next year will not make things better and it is likely to make things worse. Fianna Fáil is not the party of homeownership. It is the party of rising rents and rising house prices, and the Minister is the Minister of rising homelessness. The Government has had ample time, with 12 years of Fine Gael and seven years being propped up by the Minister's party. His time is up. The longer he remains in power, the worse things are going to get. I will say it before and I will say it again, the only way we are going to start ending this housing crisis is with a general election and change of government and a Sinn Féin housing plan that genuinely delivers affordable homes at prices working people can afford. I commend the motion to the House.

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