Rebecca Moynihan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Like others, I am genuinely surprised by the Government response to this. The 30% is not an arbitrary figure. All the experts we had in to the committee explained that between 30% and 35% of net income is the acceptable definition of affordability when it comes to housing income. In that sense, if we are opposing this recommendation for the Department to come up with a formula that defines affordability, we may as well rename this Bill the market discount Bill, because that is essentially what the Government side has argued. Market discount is not necessarily affordability, and all the experts who came in to us described what that was. This recommendation was to go to the Department to ask it to come up with a formula, and I thought that would have been a very reasonable assessment. I am surprised the Government side is opposing it. Fundamentally, this shows that the Government side is not concerned with affordability. Rather, they are concerned with market discount and using market forces in order to shave a couple of euro off housing.

This should have been a straightforward amendment that was accepted, although I am not going to change their minds at this stage. I would have been open to amendments such as that suggested by Deputy McAuliffe, because I think up to 35% is generally the agreed definition of affordability. If they are willing to do that and reach a compromise, I would also be willing to move and reach a compromise. However, I do not get the impression from the deliberate misunderstandings and the deliberate statements from the other side of the House in response to this that they are willing to reach a compromise. It was very clearly communicated by both the ESRI and the National Economic and Social Council that it was a generally internationally recognised definition of affordability. I think the Bill should be renamed the market discount Bill because of the response today.