Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 19 June 2025
Public Accounts Committee
2023 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Report on the Accounts of the Public Services 2023
Chapter 2 - Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Chapter 11 - Exceptional State Funding of the Peter McVerry Trust
Chapter 12 - Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund
Local Government Fund - Account 2023
2:00 am
Joe Neville (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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We obviously need more affordable housing. Who sets the prices for affordable housing? We have a really strange situation in Kildare. Recently, local authority houses were put up for sale as affordable houses. They are valued at €365,000 but people who apply for the local authority home loan are capped at buying houses valued below €360,000. Someone can only use a local authority home loan as long as they are buying a house for €360,000 or less. Bizarrely, affordable houses in Kildare are being priced at €365,000. As a result, people cannot use the local authority home loan for affordable housing. How can this strange situation be resolved?