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

We have argued about this all evening but this marks a huge change in social housing policy in the State. Previously, local authorities or housing agencies were funded to build and provide social and affordable housing, whereas now the priority is that developers and landlords will be funded by the taxpayer. Rather than being able to buy houses, councils will be forced to lease them from these developers. How likely is it that councils will be able to buy houses at market rates from developers? It is extremely unlikely. Why would the Minister not give them the money to build the houses at a cheaper rate themselves?

This appears to be an ideological policy to get the poor old developers, including the dysfunctional ones, out of a hole and to provide them with a regular, steady income. Why would the Minister do this otherwise? However, it means that the taxpayer will be stumping up a huge amount of money for rent for social tenants. The waiting lists have increased dramatically. There are now 100,000 people on the lists. It will be an extremely expensive means of housing people.

The other problem is that families will be stuck in an invidious position. They will not have security in their lives. Their children will be faced with moving from one school to another every couple of years, which is the situation they are in at present. They can never put down roots. In fact, there could be ghettos in some of these estates. There are social consequences to renting out 10% of an estate. At least in the case of the county council there are councillors who are accountable to the people in rented units and if there are problems there are agreements, and pressure can be exerted on the tenants. Who will be managing these units? There is a serious issue in that regard as well. For families on the housing lists, they will be stuck in the rented sector for the rest of their lives. It is ironic that the Minister waxes lyrical about people's right to own their own houses. These people will never own their own house because they will be stuck paying rent.

Has the Minister budgeted this? Will people be paying rent as they do at present, by claiming from the community welfare officer and paying it to landlords? Will it be under the housing assistance payment, HAP, or the rental accommodation scheme, RAS? What will be the cost to local authorities and the State for housing people in this expensive and very unfair fashion?

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