Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)

He hides behind a stream of selectively chosen statistics that I have no doubt he will regurgitate again in this debate. He hopes that if he can throw up enough smoke and dazzle us with enough mirrors, we will believe that a Government, which writes its housing policy at the behest of developers, is interested in creating policy to deliver for people.

No amount of spin will hide the facts. There are 44,000 households on social housing waiting lists. Social housing output as a percentage of overall annual housing output has fallen dramatically in the past four years from around 10% in 2002 to 5.8% in 2005. Less than 5% of the homes completed in the first three months of this year were for local authority tenants. Of the 81,000 houses built last year, only 830 were in the social and affordable sector. With regard to houses which have been built, there has been an 11.9% increase in the price of new houses State-wide and a 14% increase in house prices in the Dublin area. The average price of a house in Dublin in 2005 was €386,089; in 2001, the average price was €252,000. There has been a 17% increase in the price of second-hand homes. The Government is now 15,000 units short of the number of social and affordable housing it made a commitment in the national development plan to deliver by the end of this year. If that is not a crisis, I do not know what is.

The Bill put forward by Sinn Féin sets out a realistic plan to try to help achieve the NESC target of 73,000 extra social housing units by 2012, a target the Government is nowhere near achieving. We want to amend the Planning and Development Acts 2000 to 2002 to oblige developers to provide 20% of social and affordable housing and remove the option for developers to make a financial contribution to local authorities in place of providing social and affordable housing units. This will ensure that Part V delivers social and affordable housing in an integrated manner, as originally envisioned.

The decision of the Government in 2002 to abandon any real effort to deliver social and affordable housing has had a dramatic impact across the State. I will give a concrete example — a case study — of one local authority where the impact of Part V since the Government introduced the developer's loophole in 2002 can be clearly observed, using figures I received from my colleague, Councillor Joe Reilly, whom I hope will be able to raise these issues in the House after the next election.

Meath County Council has received financial contributions from builders totalling just under €4.5 million since 2002. The total number of social houses provided in Meath is three, all located in Johnstown in Navan. In terms of affordable housing, 73 units were built. To be fair, it should be noted that, in the six years since Part V was introduced, another 41 houses are "in progress". This is the record of Part V in Meath: 73 affordable units, 41 in progress and a total of three social housing units, or one every two years.

The total number of applicants on Meath County Council's local authority waiting list is 780. Is it in this lifetime or the next that the Minister of State aims to eliminate social housing waiting lists? Does he want it recorded that Fianna Fáil, the party he represents, is more comfortable with a system where developers can get out of their commitments by handing over cash than one that delivers housing for families?

The difficulties do not stop there. The erosion of the social sector means that the private rental sector increasingly acts as a refuge for people on low incomes. In 2005, over 60,000 individuals in the private rented sector were in receipt of rent supplement, representing an annual expenditure of more than €368 million. This means that every day more than €1 million of public money is shovelled into the pockets of private landlords rather than being used to build social housing. This must stop. We need a managed transition away from State subsidy of private tenancy and towards increased public resources for social housing, where tenure is by definition more secure. If Part V were amended to provide social units to those in need of social housing, we would not have to spend €1 million a day of public money on subsidising the private rented sector.

There are huge differences in the quality of houses being rented. At a meeting with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul today, I heard about a house in a neighbouring county where a family is living in rat-infested accommodation which has been condemned three times. This accommodation is being paid for by the taxpayer through rent supplement. It is a disgrace that any family is being asked to live in such conditions.

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