Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It has been interesting to listen to the debate and I very much welcome and support this Bill. I want to bring a bit of reality to the situation. The reality is that what we are talking about is just over 2% of the overall housing stock, approximately 3,960 houses. The purpose of the Bill is to allow tenants the same rights as other tenants. I cannot understand why, if Sinn Féin supports tenant purchase, as Deputy Ó Broin said, it would not support this Bill. Why would it want to create a two-tier tenancy system? Effectively, this is discrimination based on what type of tenant one is. Anyone should be able to aspire to own a home.

Some of the comments by AAA-PBP amaze me but do not surprise me. I listened to Deputy Coppinger, who unfortunately is no longer in the Chamber to hear this debate, talking about the need for housing. She talked about her time on Fingal County Council. In her time in Fingal County Council, she never once supported a development plan; she voted against every single development plan. In her constituency of Dublin West, she opposed every single development there. Her colleagues continue to do likewise in Fingal. Members of AAA-PBP are the very last people I would take any advice from on sorting our housing problem. The reality of the situation regarding the Part V arrangement, which Deputies Coppinger and Joan Collins bemoaned earlier, is that from 2002 to 2015, if one takes out the difficult four or five years when there was very little construction, more than 16,000 units were provided under it. That is 16,000 family homes, the majority of them affordable houses where people own them. There is also a claw back for future sale. We are trying to level the playing pitch for tenants and to ensure there is not a two-tier system. If anyone could explain to me why it is right to discriminate between social housing tenants, I would not support this Bill. This Bill is about rectifying that and removing that discrimination. The whole idea that we will deplete the stock is nonsense. The figures do not bear that out; it is 2.33% of housing stock. Is anyone saying that should this Bill pass, there will be an immediate push towards purchasing those 3,961 houses? The future sale of these houses would derive their own claw back also. It is allowing families to set down roots; it is as simple as that.

6 o’clock

The Government should allow the Bill go through on Second Stage. We can work on certain aspects on Committee Stage. While the Government wants to delay this for a further nine months, most will agree that the Irish in general will aspire to home ownership. Others can bemoan that and state that should not be the case, but it is the case. Why should someone not be secure in the knowledge that he or she owns his or her own home?

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