Rebecca Moynihan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the officials for their presentations. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has never really co-ordinated the opportunities there are for developers in downsizing and in older persons' housing. One of the critical mistakes the Minister made was not applying the bulk fund for investors in properties that were coming onto the market to apartments and that will hit older people who are looking to downsize. Apartments, particularly in suburban areas, are perfect for people who want security, a smaller footprint to manage and access to lifts or ground floors. It is a real shame that institutional investors are still able to bulk-buy apartments and that will particularly affect the older population.

I also want to make a couple of points on Dublin city, where I come from, and the number of build to rent properties there as opposed to apartments. I know friends of mine whose parents have moved into apartments because they were not able to manage their houses. They are happy there, it is a good, safe and secure way for them to live and they know they have all the services there. In Dublin and particularly in my area we are simply seeing build to rent properties being built and that denies older people the opportunity to downsize as build to rent properties do not have proper storage or balcony facilities. The Department should consider harmonising the build to buy and build to rent standards because we need to make sure that in years to come housing will be flexible and can be changed. What might be a house for one generation might end up being a group of apartments for another generation and we need to ensure that what is being built is flexible in that way. The tendency has been for the developers to want to pull down everything and then build something else. We cannot do that with the carbon emissions that come from building and housing and I ask that the Department consider harmonising those standards.

In my questions I want to focus on renters and on older people who are renting. There is a generation of people who are of pension age, who have paid off their mortgages, who have pensions and who do not have to worry about housing costs but in the not too distant future we will have a generation of people for whom housing costs will make up more than what their pensions will be. How does the Department see this matter developing in the coming years and what future planning is it doing for older people renting and spending their entire pensions on rent? While we can talk about downsizing and trying to get people into more appropriate housing and while we can adopt a strategy for same, we need to have a look at the older persons' rental crisis that is coming down the line and developing. To what extent does the Department see the intake in the fair deal scheme reducing in the coming years because of people renting in older age and because of the reduction in home ownership? Has the impact that paying for fair deal will have on the Department of Health been costed?

I refer to rightsizing. Has the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage costed giving people either bridging loans, tax incentives or a clawback of capital gains tax after death? I have a number of people who are in a difficult financial situation but who own an asset. The Department is looking at private companies and we know that in the UK some of those companies have behaved unethically towards older people who do not have the wherewithal to know what they are signing at the time. Is there potential for a local authority home loan, which Deputy McAuliffe addressed? I will let those questions be asked and not ask my last question.