Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I find it difficult to recognise the Minister's offering as a housing strategy. On 5 April 2015, the Minister of State, Deputy Paudie Coffey, stated in the Dáil that funding of €312 million announced by the Government would provide 1,700 homes by the end of 2017 and would be used for direct builds, meaning not for leasing or buying. This represents accommodation for fewer than 2% of those on the social housing waiting list. It suggests that the lion's share of funding will go towards leasing from private landlords and yet the Government's housing policy document warns of the problems arising from the already massive dependence on the private sector for social housing provision, namely, that this reliance is unstable, especially as landlords are seeking higher rents and there are problems identifying new supply. Michael Taaffe has pointed out that the Government's entire housing strategy is reliant on a long string of fanciful hopes bearing fruit in the right quantity at the right time. The Government's reliance on non-capital expenditure should be seen as risky at best. The plan would clearly push the whole area into the hands of the private rental market. It will put upward pressure on private rents as private tenants compete for units. The State is adding diesel to the fire.

I remind the Minister that we have a serious housing crisis and the Government is not really dealing with it. The Government's so-called housing strategy for the next few years does not add up. The convoluted and contradictory plan announced by the Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, on several occasions over the past six months does not make sense a lot of the time.

The Minister says the Government is committed to developing sustainable communities but the evidence differs. Wexford is being given €25 million to build 677 local authority houses, which equates to €37,400 a unit. Wexford has been told it can build 19 local authority social housing units in the next three years. I was speaking to a woman who has six children and who is being pushed out of her private rental accommodation. She is paying the rent but her landlord says he wants to sell the property. It is obvious that he is not getting enough rent for it even though the woman is adding a top-up payment to the rent supplement. Why would any landlord take €575 when he can get €700 or €750? The whole equation is problematic. There is no sense in the Government's approach and it is too dependent on the private sector behaving in a moral fashion towards those in dire straits. The Government will need to rethink the strategy. Would the Minister consider appealing to the EU for off-balance sheet capital funding so that we could build State-funded social housing in order to address the massive problem?

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