Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

This group of amendments set down by the Socialist Party Deputies seeks to provide for the inclusion of social and affordable housing in the list of projects that would be paid for by the taxpayer out of the National Pensions Reserve Fund and used in the new strategic investment fund. I said yesterday that it was amazing to anyone outside the House that such a thing would be excluded from a list of strategic investment projects. The most strategic need in the country is social and affordable housing for the 100,000 families on the housing list. Just before I came to the Chamber, I was contacted yet again by another family whose members have been sleeping in their car for the last couple of nights. This is not the first case of which we have heard. I could cite a whole number of other cases I have on my books. My cases must be very different from those of the Minister of State, Deputy O'Dowd, given that he has seen fit to leave this strategic need out of the legislation. I am amazed that the Tánaiste is not sitting beside the Minister of State, as she suddenly discovered over the weekend and talked loudly to the media about social and affordable housing and a low pay commission. She must be Rip Van Winkle and have been asleep for the last number of years. It is blatantly obvious that there is a crying need for housing to be built.

We need to include social and affordable housing because there are 100,000 families on the housing waiting lists of local authorities. There are also 100,000 families in mortgage arrears or distress. We have seen an increasing number of repossession attempts in the last number of weeks, yet the only plan the State currently has for the building of social housing units is for 449 units to be built. I have searched high and low and that is the entire number of social housing units, as far as I can see, that the State plans to build. By way of contrast, an average of 3,300 social housing units was built in every year between the 1890s and the 1990s. Now that we have a housing emergency and it is obvious that there is a need for public housing, the State talks about providing 449 units in the next couple of years.

There have been two major occasions in the history of the State on which a serious attempt was made to provide social and affordable housing. From 1932 to 1948, 53,000 local authority homes were built. We had a smaller population of 3 million people at that time. The per capitaequivalent for today's population would mean the building of 79,500 units over a similar timeframe, or 4,500 per annum. In the 1930s and 1940s, ten times more housing was built than the current Government is planning in a country that was impoverished and in the grip of a recession. The 1970s was the second period during which the State intervened to take action. From 1971 to 1980, 64,170 council homes were built, again against the backdrop of a much smaller population of 3 million to 3.5 million.

In today's population figures, it would amount to 8,500 to 9,600 houses built each year if we use the 1970s as our model. One third of housing was social housing. We see the ideological aversion to social housing by Governments, including this one, in the past number of years. It started with Fianna Fáil and is continuing with Fine Gael and the Labour Party given that the latter holds that ministerial position. In the 1970s, 15% of all households lived in a council or local authority house, a figure that decreased in the 1990s to 8%. In the boom, significant house building took place but much of it was outside of people's price range and was overpriced. Only 10% was social housing and we have a serious crisis on our hands because Governments failed to listen to advisory groups. The National Economic Social Council, NESC, advised in 2004, when there was so much money in the country that 73,000 new social housing units should be built in the following six to seven years, amounting to 9,000 houses per year. That was completely ignored. The Government is introducing significant legislation that involves up to €6 billion being used for strategic projects. The building of homes can be commercially viable. We need affordable homes for the working poor who are priced out of buying houses and who cannot get mortgages. This is a major blockage in the banking system. Cheap rates could be provided for working people. We also need social housing for people with no prospect of buying a house.

The Government has the power to include the building of social and affordable houses and apartments in these projects and it is absolutely essential to do so. It is also essential councils discuss the matter and arrangements are made to allow councils to undertake house building. It should not just involve housing agencies as local authorities have a track record of building houses. I call on the Minister of State to accept the amendment if he wants to be taken seriously by the electorate, who have clearly identified housing as a key issue in the recent elections.

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