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

I welcome the Minister and his officials. On social housing delivery, I note from the statement provided by the Minister that more than 6,400 homes are on-site. All present are acutely aware of the need to expedite the delivery of social housing. Has the Minister written to local authorities about raising the discretionary cap to €6 million, a measure negotiated for inclusion in budget 2019? In my view and that of my party, that would assist local authorities to build developments of 40 to 50 houses without having to go through the five-stage process with the Department. It was agreed to before the budget. The last time I asked about it, I was told that it was being assessed by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. That did not form part of our discussions on the matter last year. Has the Minister issued a circular to local authorities to advise them that the discretionary cap has been raised to €6 million?

How much social housing does the Government expect to build this year? I discussed this matter with the Minister of State, Deputy English, and tried to tie down the number of homes we were building, rather than buying. We are still operating in a shrunken market. Last year 18,000 homes were built. The State bought approximately 2,760 of them, while the investor and cuckoo funds, to which I will return, bought slightly less than 3,000. Approximately 4,700 were one-off rural homes, most of which were not offered for sale. That left approximately 7,000 homes available for purchase on the market in 2018 before any consideration of affordability. The average house price in Dublin equates to approximately nine and a half times the average industrial wage, which is a big problem. Supply is a big issue. What is the Department's stance on purchasing homes through the Housing Agency or otherwise? I know of quite substantial developments which the Housing Agency is seeking to purchase. I am delighted that people are being housed, but we are in a shrunken market and competing against people who want to try to get their foot on the housing ladder.

Are there plans within the Department to arrest the march of cuckoo and investor funds in acquiring build-to-rent properties? A report in The Sunday Business Postlast Sunday examined planning permissions granted for some developments. In Walkinstown, Dublin 12, there were 757 new units, of which more than 500 were built-to-rent units. Some 1,258 units were approved in the greater Dublin area, 965 of which are build-to-rent properties. Of course, we need to increase the supply of rental properties, but investors are pouring into the market because of the high rents payable across the country and the tax-free treatment they receive, which is taking many prospective homes off the market. In the area I represent it has happened in Taylor Hill in Balbriggan and Semple Woods in Donabate where family-sized homes were sold directly to real estate investment trusts, REITs by some of the larger builders such as Glenveagh Properties. That is a big problem which needs to be tackled through planning and otherwise. There is a role for investors in the market, but that role should be appropriate and proportionate. They are taking over swathes of Dublin and the rest of the country, which is a serious concern.

The cost-effective analysis requirement which the Department has put in place for schemes worth more than €20 million was previously known as cost-benefit analysis. When local authorities submit schemes to the Department, they face the new hurdle of cost-effective analysis. Effectively, the Department has set down a criterion for schemes worth more than €20 million, whereby it asks the local authority whether the plan stacks up, which is understandable. However, my understanding from research we have carried out is that the development of almost 2,000 homes in the Dublin city local authority area alone is being held up by the cost-effective analysis hurdle.

From correspondence I have seen there is a frustration with some of the local authorities that no criteria has been set down or published as to how they would meet the requirements of this cost-effective analysis. One would think that at a time when we are trying to increase the supply of public and private housing - in this instance, it is public housing - we would actually make it easier for our local authorities to deliver and not make it more difficult. Why is this cost-effective analysis in place and why has the Minister not seen fit to move forward with raising the discretionary cap to €6 million?