Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Ó Broin for tabling this motion. Each time the housing crisis is discussed in the House, the Minister tries to avoid his failures by producing misleading figures. How many affordable houses have been delivered under the local authority affordable purchase scheme in Tipperary? The answer is "None". At the same time, people are facing a rental market collapse, with the standardised average rent for quarter 4 of 2023 increasing by 10% for new tenancies in Tipperary and by 7.7% for existing ones. Clonmel, Cashel and Tipperary town were particularly affected. Additionally, Tipperary had one of the highest drop-offs in newly registered tenancies at 50.3%, again limiting options. As a result, the rental market is broken and the option to purchase is hampered by a lack of affordable housing.

Young people are leaving because they cannot afford the rite of passage that so many of us took for granted, that being, to move out and seize opportunities. Instead, they are trapped in an expensive and insecure private rental sector or back at home where their opportunities are limited and they are locked out of affordable home ownership. This is impacting on the economy and the delivery of public services, yet the Government seems committed to increasing house prices to the cost of our young people and does not have the ambition to chart a way out for them.

It is possible to deliver homes at prices that working people can actually afford through our affordable leasehold purchase scheme, which would reduce the initial purchase price of the home while also ensuring permanent affordability for subsequent buyers. The State’s housing programme must be ambitious, not misleading and ineffective, as is the policy the Government is pursuing. Its policy is a failure. It missed the housing targets for last year and for 2022. People are without a home as a result. The Government is out of ideas and people are out of patience. It is time for the Government to go. The Minister loves telling us the tide has turned. I hope he is right and that, when the tide goes back out, he and the rest of the Government go with it.

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