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

It is entirely legitimate for any member of this committee to table amendments on matters of housing policy. We can disagree with those amendments, which is fine, but to suggest that we are tabling them for anything other than the reason that we believe they would improve the policy in the Bill is wrong. I respect all members of this committee. I might disagree profoundly with the policies they propose. Coming into this committee and tabling these amendments is legitimate. It is not, to quote Senator Fitzpatrick, a "delaying tactic". In fact, we are making good progress. For the record, I suggested in private session that I would be quite happy if we took these votes without debate to speed up the process but it was Government members who legitimately, and I have no objection to this, wanted to have this debate publicly. They cannot then criticise us for wanting to have that debate.

In response to Deputy Duffy, the LDA does not have access to this cost rental equity loan. This is currently a loan for AHBs. This is how it is designed and, therefore, his reference to the LDA is not factually correct. The next point in respect of the 10% to 15% figure is really important because it seems some members on the Government side might misunderstand either my intention in tabling this motion or the way these funds will work. When a private developer is developing, and private developers are a very clear entity, they are required both through their private financing and standard practice to have what is called a profit and margin line on their development of between 10% and 15%. I am quite happy to send Senator Cummins the four SCSI reports that deal specifically with this. The reports itemise that and they are from real live development projects over the past number of years for houses and apartments. The consequence of that is that separate to the cost of finance, which members will also see as a line item in the SCSI reports, bringing in developers adds an extra 10% to 15%. That is on top of the cost of the finance and other costs. The key issue is that if we allow that to happen, entry rents would increase. I have not heard a single member on the Government side respond to my key concern, which is a genuine concern, that opening the door to private developers accessing this scheme, as with the previous scheme, would push up prices. We have real-life examples where that has happened. When the row over O'Devaney Gardens was happening in Dublin City Council, there was a proposition that the local authority and an AHB should acquire at full market value additional properties from Bartra and rent them out as cost rental. Any calculation of what rent repayment would look like over a 40 or 50-year period was €1,600 to €1,800 per month. That is the consequence of bringing in a private developer. Thankfully, so far, the Department has refused to fund that proposition because it is not affordable by any stretch of the imagination.

In respect of scaling up, the reason we do not have cost rental accommodation in this State is Governments have refused to fund it.

It has been Government policy since 2014. Deputy Alan Kelly, in the Social Housing Strategy 2020, promised cost-rental. Rebuilding Ireland promised-----