Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

According to the September report of the housing committee in Dublin City Council, 314 houses have been completed to date, including housing body units. Given that 23,000 people are on the housing waiting list and given the crisis relating to homeless families, Dublin City Council will need far more funding.

This goes back to the question earlier relating to O'Devaney Gardens. A motion was put through the council to ensure that all houses built in O'Devaney Gardens would either be social housing or units offered to people who had applied for mortgages. That is the way to go. If we add the private element to the plan, there is no provision in the system to ensure these units will be owner-occupied. Most would probably go out to private rent from landlords, investors and so on. There is no guarantee that it will be a good mix. Most units will be rented or social housing. There is a need to match the numbers on the list to the amount of houses built. To my mind, this will not be done by giving developers the opportunity to make vast amounts of money on these sites, which are public lands.

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