Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

We are talking about 90 acres of council land. There is no other land that is zoned for housing, apart from in-fill spots in existing estates. We have a massive housing crisis. The Deputy has said that he wants to provide these units as quickly as possible. There is no reason that this could not be provided if the council maintains full development of it as quickly as possible. For low and middle incomes, the reality is that there will be less social housing delivered under this policy. I have checked with a council official and was told that 1,500 units could be put in this land if it was fully developed in that way. What will happen now is that the council will only get 30% of those units, 50% will go to the private developer and 20% will be what are called affordable rental that will be priced at around 80% of the market rate, around €1,100 or €1,200. The people renting will be the low and middle income people the Minister of State is talking about. A previous Deputy asked why the Government is so dead set against having mixed occupancy by having social housing but having affordable mortgages where low income workers would be able to avail of a good, cheap mortgage, as many of us had the chance to do with the council before.

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