Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Any good that is in this Bill is completely wiped out by these leasing provisions. This marks another fundamental watershed in this Government's gallop away from the principle of the provision of social housing by local authorities and towards outsourcing such provision to the private sector. When private developers build housing under this Bill, nothing at all - not 20% and not 10% - will have to be handed over to local authorities on a permanent basis. They will be able to engage in leasing to get out of their obligations. We will be paying them for years and years to come. It is a form of corporate welfare on a massive scale, as if we have not had enough corporate welfare in this country for the past 20 years. It will cost us an absolute fortune. The sky is literally the limit when one looks at where property prices and rental prices are going at the moment, and they will continue to go in that direction. It is not surprising that Fine Gael would do this, but it is shocking beyond belief that the Labour Party is a party to it. This is the beginning of the end of local authority housing. When we look at the figures for next year and the year after, we see that the number of actual real physical council houses that are going to be built is negligible. It is all rental accommodation scheme leasing and housing assistance payment scheme agreements. This is rotten stuff. It has to be opposed vigorously.

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