Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

The date, 19 May, was a very bleak day for residents in O'Devaney Gardens, Dominick Street Lower and St. Michael's Estate. On that day, Dublin City Council announced that the public private partnership agreements for the regeneration of these estates had effectively collapsed and that there was no plan B to be put in place. Unbelievably, Bernard McNamara took to the national airwaves seeking sympathy for his plight, while the residents were left to look on stunned, devastated and counting the loss not just of promised new homes, but of the community and social infrastructure that was to help build new communities in these areas.

The Labour Party motion tonight provides a formula for the Government to resolve the housing crises caused by the collapse of the public private partnership agreements between McNamara and Company and Dublin City Council. It also offers the Government a template to move the construction industry away from the saturated private residential market into the social and affordable housing market, which has been starved of resources and largely neglected during the boom years of the Celtic tiger.

It is incredible to think that while new records were set each year for the construction of private houses and apartments, culminating in more than 90,000 housing units last year, local authority housing lists were worsening and affordable housing demand was going through the roof. As the rich added to their property portfolios with city pads and holiday homes funded by 100% mortgages at low interest rates and by 100% tax breaks, those who were in dire need of housing were largely forgotten. Social and affordable housing dried up and the waiting lists lengthened.

Every three years, Dublin City Council conducts an assessment of housing needs. In 2005 the assessment showed that there were 18,582 applications for social housing accommodation in the city council's administrative area alone. Three years later the figures, yet to be released, reveal a 13% increase to over 21,000. The assessment of high or urgent housing need increased in the same period from 5,500 to approximately 6,700, representing an even sharper increase of 22%.

Moreover, the demand in the affordable housing sector has spiralled out of control. As fewer couples and families could afford the exorbitant house prices fuelled by speculation and tax breaks, the demand for affordable housing rose dramatically. In April 2008, Dublin City Council had more than 8,000 affordable housing applications, with a pitifully small number of units of accommodation coming on stream for the occasional lottery. The council could not cope with the demand and simply closed its doors to new business, leaving thousands of young couples and young families out in the cold with no hope of purchasing a home of their own.

The new rental accommodation scheme, or RAS, has also ground to a halt. To qualify for RAS a tenant has to be at least 18 months in receipt of rent supplement. Up to 26 February 2008, when I received a reply from the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, the HSE had identified to local authorities across the country more than 30,000 long-term recipients of rent supplement entitled to be transferred into the RAS scheme. However, in 2007 the rental accommodation scheme in Dublin City Council had closed its doors to new applicants. Unable to cope with the numbers of applicants, the scheme has ground to a halt. Those of us in this House who hold regular clinics and deal with housing issues know that there is an accommodation crisis in social and affordable housing provision throughout Ireland.

The Exchequer surplus of the boom years could have been used to provide shelter for all, but there was no Taoiseach, Minister for Finance or Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government with the vision to act effectively. The money was squandered, massaging the already bloated private construction sector which is now stranded like a beached whale. The best opportunity in the history of the State to clear our social housing lists was missed. Local authorities became over-dependent on housing under Part V of the Planning and Development Act 2000 to provide social and affordable housing. This was never the intention of that section. Part V of the Planning and Development Act 2000 was intended as a means of supplementing local authority supply. It was not intented to replace new social housing.

It is against this stark background of social housing inertia that Dublin City Council considered a regeneration programme for rundown housing estates in the context of the Government's National Development Plan in 2002-06. In the same year the State Authorities (Public Private Partnership Agreements) Act 2002 was passed. The public private partnership as the vehicle for delivering community regeneration was born. The idea was to engage the private sector in a joint venture with the local authority in funding, planning and delivering a package of private, affordable and social housing and community facilities with the minimum cost and risk to the local authority and maximum benefit to the community. Unfortunately it was to prove too good to be true. However, at the time the communities involved in O'Devaney Gardens, Lower Dominick Street and St. Michael's Estate did not know that.

Regeneration boards were established and community representatives were chosen. Public meetings and workshops were held. Wide-ranging consultation was embarked upon. Men and, in particular, women sat down with the developer and the local authority to plan their new accommodation, their new playgrounds, their new crèches, their new streets and their new community centres. They were prepared to live through those years of planning, demolition and reconstruction. They were prepared to vacate their own flats so that a block of flats could become vacant and be demolished. They were prepared to be patient and to put up with the major inconvenience so the new vision of regeneration with quality homes and quality facilities would become a reality for their children. As three quarters of the tenants involved are lone parents, mainly women, there is a further issue of gender equity that needs to be addressed in finding a solution.

Six years of participation and enthusiasm in the case of the 280 families in O'Devaney Gardens and 120 families in Lower Dominick Street have now been shattered by the collapse of the public private partnership agreements. There is little value in us poring over the entrails for three hours tonight and tomorrow night and blaming the developer or the local authority. Bernard McNamara and Dublin City Council can do that in their own good time and in whatever forum they choose. However, the third party to the partnership, namely, the residents, who are totally blameless and the victims of the collapse, must be at the centre of our deliberations tonight and tomorrow night. It is their welfare and their futures alone that we should be concerned with now.

The Labour Party is of the view that the present PPP agreements for O'Devaney Gardens, Lower Dominick Street and St. Michael's Estate have no future and should be given a decent burial immediately. The people who can do that are the Taoiseach, the Minister for Finance and the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, who is present. I am sure backbenchers in the Government ranks echo our sympathy for the plight of the residents of St. Michael's Estate, O'Devaney Gardens and Dominick Street. We have framed the motion in such a way that there is no criticism of the Government or any other political party. Rather all Deputies can rally around and support a frank and practical approach to resolving this crisis. The Government through the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government should take direct responsibility for funding and delivering the long-awaited social and affordable housing projects with the agreed community facilities.

Tonight and tomorrow night the Labour Party is calling on the Government to put the people of O'Devaney Gardens, St. Michael's Estate and Lower Dominick Street first. Men, women and children who have suffered appalling conditions for many years in the promise of a brighter future must not be further disadvantaged by the present downturn in the economy. The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government can take this opportunity to act and be the first to commit the Government to a new economic initiative in the interests of the people affected. Alternatively, the Government can remain paralysed and petrified like a rabbit in the glare of the headlights. We have presented the Minister with a practical way forward that bolsters the economy, creates employment, delivers on the regeneration commitments and puts the residents of O'Devaney Gardens, Lower Dominick Street and St. Michael's Estate first. He should respond positively and act now.

See this speech in context