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

I thank the delegates for their presentations. I have a number of different questions for both councils. With regard to the cost-rental and affordable purchase projects, could the delegates give us the current position in the pipeline in terms of design, planning, procurement, the expected construction dates and, ultimately, expected tenanting? I refer, in particular, to those developments are the most live, including those in Enniskerry Road and St. Michael's Estate, the Ballymun project and some of the more recently announced serviced-site fund projects that have been approved.

We had a very detailed discussion with the NDFA and the Housing Agency on Enniskerry Road and St. Michael's Estate. Given that the Enniskerry Road project is the very first, the pilot, it is an important one. St. Michael's Estate is also important because it is such a large project.

Its success is very important and the committee has a long record of supporting it. The big concern many of us had during the earlier session was how we can bring down the cost of rent. I appreciate that with regard to Enniskerry Road the entry rent is set at €1,200 and while I would like to be able to suggest there could be a mechanism to reduce it, I am not doing so. I have a hypothetical question relevant to the question I have asked Dublin City Council. What would it take to reduce the cost of the Enniskerry Road entry rent from €1,200 to, say, €900? The Housing Agency was very clear about the peculiarities of the site and clearly there is not much more that can be done there. The loan is for 40 years so there is not much that can be done there either. How much extra from the serviced sites fund would it take to reduce entry rents in that project to below €900? Is this something that was looked at at any stage? Do the witnesses have any advice to offer those of us looking at other sites?

In its final comment, the National Development Finance Agency made pretty clear to us that if there is a 25-year European Investment Bank loan and the serviced sites fund allocation is in the order of what it is for Enniskerry Road, the rent will not reduce to below €1,200. It was very straight about that. Clearly its view is that the only way to decrease the rent is through a greater portion of capital upfront or some form of mixed loan finance combining the EIB with the HFA or both, or perhaps having interest-only HFA loans and some restructuring of the capital end of the HFA at the end of the 25 years and so on.

Given the significance of St. Michael's Estate, if we do not reduce the rents it will colour people's view of cost rental at a more general level. This is in no way a criticism of Dublin City Council because I am very supportive of the direction in which the project has gone but if the witnesses were with the Minister or Department or were getting us to raise issues with the Minister and the Department, what would they say is needed that is different to Enniskerry Road to reduce the rents in St. Michael's Estate? If one looks at rent as approximately one third of net disposable income, one is looking at entry rents of between €700 and €900 if it is to capture those people above the threshold for social housing eligibility and, at the top end, with a gross household income of perhaps €75,000 or €80,000. What is needed to decrease those rents with regard to the serviced sites fund or the structuring of the loan or both?

With regard to the eligibility criteria for affordable cost rental, every time I raise this with the Department it seems to suggest it is a matter for local authorities and Ms Keenan very clearly indicated her understanding is that there is a working group in the Department. I know the eligibility criteria are a little way off but I would be interested to hear the views of the witnesses on what they think should be in them. Should there be a lower income limit whereby the only people eligible for affordable cost rental would be those not entitled to social housing? We would have that bottom line, which would mean social housing tenants would not be in an affordable cost rental unit supplemented by housing assistance payment. Is that something the witnesses think would be desirable? At the top end, do they think €70,000 or €75,000, as it is for the affordable purchase scheme, is the right point? Do they believe there is an argument to say it should be increased to €80,000 or €85,000? I am interested to hear the thoughts of the witnesses on this.

With regard to affordable purchase, local authorities have begun to receive awards for the affordable purchase serviced sites fund. The Irish Timeshas quoted figures from Dublin City Council of price ranges between €116,000 and €237,000. This reporting does not necessarily mean it is accurate but what do both local authorities hope will be the lower and upper end of the price range? I know it is difficult to answer and subject to change because of the cost of construction but I am interested to hear what are their hopes or expectations. We have seen significant affordability in the Ó Cualann project in Ballymun and this could be replicated elsewhere in the city and county, which would be valuable.

We have been speaking about affordable cost rental or cost rental since Deputy Kelly's Social Housing Strategy 2020 and it was mentioned again in Rebuilding Ireland three years ago. There is a lot of frustration in communities, in the House and, I am sure, among the local authorities and their staff at the fact we are still speaking about only a couple of pilots. While I appreciate the number of pilots is increasing, it is nowhere close to meeting the level of need for affordable purchase or rental accommodation that exists.

I am sure both local authorities are aware of the ESRI study that referred to 30% of households having affordability problems with mortgages or rent and people, some of whom spend as much as 40% of their net disposable income on housing, not being eligible for social housing. Crucially, the same report identified that 75% of the lower 25% of income earners experience high housing costs. These are people who are not eligible for family income supplement, housing assistance payment, rent supplement or medical cards. Having 40% of net disposable income going on housing is huge. Given the large volume of need for affordable housing, do the witnesses believe what is in the pipeline is sufficient? Do they have a read in their local authority areas as to what would be an efficient scale? Do they believe we need to move to multi-year targets, not unlike the Rebuilding Ireland social housing targets? Do they have a sense of what they would be in their administrative areas?