Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I do not know how the Minister can give us accurate figures when, in Cherrywood, we do not know how much we are going to get for LIHAF funding. The council tells us that. Alarmingly, it could be as low as 75 units or, if it is spread across, it could be a €75,000 discount on average prices which are about €450,000. That is not affordable and it is no use. It is not a serious return. As Senator Boyhan said, Cherrywood will be one of the biggest developments in the State. It could solve Dún Laoghaire's housing problem but it is not going to do so as matters stand because we will get 800 social units of 8,000 altogether and there may be as little as 1% in affordable housing. The other big development is in Shanganagh. The council is currently only talking about 200 units on a site that could potentially have 536 units. Over a three or four-year period, we will get 1,000 social units against a housing list of 5,700. By the time those are delivered, the list will be longer. That is no good. What is the Minister going to do to increase the percentages of LIHAF and of social housing in Cherrywood? If he does not do those things, we will not solve the problem. There is currently no plan to do anything about that. What will happen to the NAMA land in Cherrywood? I presume it is part of the 20,000 planned units of which we will only get 2,000 for social housing. That is no good; it is not enough. Unless we ramp that up, we will not solve the crisis in our area. I suspect that Dún Laoghaire reflects what is happening in the rest of the country.

Will the Minister tell me how he is going to increase the percentage and proportion of social and affordable housing? To nail a myth and get the Minister to confirm it, there is a notion that it is too costly for local authorities to maintain council houses. I looked at Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council's budget for this year. It gets €15 million in rent from all its social housing stock. The maintenance is €10 million, which means that it makes a 50% profit on its annual output.