Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 2:

To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following:

"notes that: — Budget 2024 delivered a record €5.1 billion in capital investment in housing made up of €2.6 billion in exchequer funding, €978 million for the Land Development Agency (LDA) and €1.5 billion for Housing Finance Agency (HFA) funding;

— the capital funding being provided for housing in 2024, coupled with LDA and HFA investment, is the highest ever in the history of the State;

— a review and refresh of Housing for All targets is underway, including for social and affordable housing, with revised targets to be agreed and published in 2024, having regard to the Census 2022 data published in Autumn this year, and updated population and structural housing demand projections being developed by the Economic and Social Research Institute for the National Planning Framework revision;

— numerous initiatives are already underway to address vacancy and dereliction, underpinned by the Vacant Homes Action Plan 2023-2026 which was launched earlier this year, and which will revitalise towns and cities while also providing additional homes;

— the recent expansion of the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant, the changes to the Vacant Property Tax made in Budget 2024, and the new local authority-led Compulsory Purchase Orders Activation Programme is resulting in a significant increase of vacant homes coming back into use and an increase in the supply of homes for rent or purchase;

— building on the enhanced tenancy protections introduced by this Government, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is close to concluding a comprehensive review of the private rental sector, which takes into account the significant regulatory changes over the past several years;

— the extension of Rent Pressure Zones where rents are capped at 2 per cent, the increase in the rent tax credit to €750 in Budget 2024, and the introduction of other legislative requirements to support renters;

— the increase in the thresholds for access to Cost Rental homes, which was increased from €53k net to €66k net in Dublin and €59k outside Dublin, in July 2023;

— interventions such as the Tenant in Situ Scheme are making a real impact in providing secure, long-term homes and preventing homelessness, and to date in 2023 over 1,000 social housing acquisitions have been completed with a further 1,600 at various stages of the assessment and conveyance process;

— the Cost Rental Tenant in Situ Scheme (CRTiS) was introduced on 1st April, 2023, for tenants in private rental homes who are not eligible for social housing supports but who are at risk of homelessness, and the Housing Agency are engaging with more than 130 landlords with a view to the purchase of those homes;

— the increase in homelessness is a serious concern and remains a top priority for the Government, and that resources and funding are not an obstacle to the urgent efforts required; and

— Budget 2024 provides funding of over €242 million, an increase of 12.6 per cent on this year, for the delivery of homeless services; further notes that the Public Spending Code is in the process of being reformed to the updated Infrastructure Guidelines and will be published shortly, and several changes to the Capital Appraisal Guidelines have already been implemented through Circular 06/2023 issued by the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform;

acknowledges that increased supply is key to meeting demand and moderating house prices, and welcomes that: — annual house price inflation, as measured by the Central Statistics Office Residential Property Price Index, has moderated significantly in 2023, falling from 15.1 per cent in March 2022 to less than 1 per cent in August 2023;

— first-time buyer mortgage approvals reached a new 12-month high, with 30,184 mortgages approved in the 12 months ending September 2023, some 61 per cent of all mortgage drawdowns approved; and

— almost 30,000 new homes were built in 2022, an increase of 45 per cent on 2021, and 5,250 homes or 21 per cent higher than the Housing for All target of 24,600; recognises that considerable progress has been made since Housing for All (September 2021) was published, including: — increased social and affordable housing supply, with 10,263 social homes delivered in 2022, representing an 11.9 per cent increase on 2021 figures, when 9,169 social homes were provided, and this represents the highest annual output of social homes in decades and the highest level of delivery of new-build housing since 1975;

— from a standing start, 1,757 affordable homes delivered in 2022, the first full year of affordable housing delivery in a generation, and that a very ambitious programme of affordable housing is now in place, and this momentum is continuing as the pipeline of affordable housing develops further by local authorities, by Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) and by the LDA;

— funding of over €370 million has been approved to date to assist in the delivery of over 4,300 affordable homes from 2022 to 2027, from 72 schemes across 20 local authorities under the Affordable Housing Fund;

— funding of over €600 million for AHBs under the Cost Rental Equity Loan has been approved to date, to assist in the delivery of over 3,000 Cost Rental homes from 2022 to 2027;

— as of Q3 2023, the First Home Scheme had 2,598 approvals, and a total of 6,376 potential buyers had registered their interest in the scheme, with over 3,900 new expressions of interest so far in 2023;

— the significant increase in new home commencements, which is continuing with almost 24,000 homes commenced between January and September this year, up 14 per cent on last year; and

— more than 22,400 homes have been built to end-September 2023, with the Housing for All targets or 29,000 and 33,450 expected to be met, if not exceeded, in 2023 and 2024 respectively; and agrees that continued implementation of Housing for All represents the most appropriate response to deal with the housing challenges which Ireland is now facing.".

This is an opportunity to put on record the facts relating to budget 2024. It delivered a record €5.1 billion in capital investment. As Deputies will know, this was €2.6 billion in Exchequer spending; €978 million for the LDA and €1.5 billion through the Housing Finance Agency. The capital funding provided for housing in 2024, coupled with that investment is the highest ever in the history of the State. Sinn Féin would actually abolish the LDA and remove €1 billion worth of funding for affordable housing next year. Its own, what I would loosely call "alternative budget" is under-funded substantially compared with what the Government is doing.

On Housing for All itself, we are refreshing the targets. Deputy Ó Broin will know that. This includes the targets for social and affordable housing. Revised targets will be agreed and published in 2024. By any fair assessment, in year one, we exceeded our targets by more than 5,000 because we are actually building and delivering. This year, we will exceed our targets again. We know there is a lot more to do in this space but serious progress is being made. Not only are the Deputies opposite denying progress, which they like to do, they are not content with that; they like to continue to block progress. I wonder why Deputy Ó Snodaigh is not one of their speakers here this evening because he is the most recent objector to social and affordable housing in this Dáil, adding to a long list of Sinn Féin Deputies-----

See this speech in context