Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that. It is very kind of the Deputy to let me contribute. Affordable housing and affordable cost rental have been probably the biggest issues I have faced as a councillor and now as a Deputy. We want a robust and fair affordable housing and cost rental scheme, but there is a major lack of detail and information in the scheme here. The witness made a point about the Central Bank giving its judgment. For us to give our judgment, we would need that type of detail. There was mention earlier about the families who are trapped in the middle. These families cannot get on the social housing list because they earn too much and they cannot get a mortgage from a bank because they are not earning enough. We must deliver affordable housing for these people, because they are trapped and have been waiting. There has been talk about an affordable housing scheme for years, but we could be looking at months if not years more before this delivers houses.

I wish to raise a point on which Mr. Quinlan or Mr Nicholson can respond. Cork City Council owes €36 million on unsold affordable houses from the previous downturn. It also owes €36 million on land it purchased to build social and affordable houses. Cork City Council, alone, owes at least €72 million.

If the council owes that, I imagine most other local authorities have similar debts for either unsold social or affordable housing and land that they purchased to build housing. We want this to continue, but how can local authorities move ahead when they have this large debt hanging over them?

Can we get more clarity about the criteria for how people will qualify? Then there are the issues of what affordable houses will be, because I am from Cork and, obviously, Cork will be different from Dublin, Limerick and Galway. We need affordable housing that will work for everyone.