Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

There are no other sites in the greater Blanchardstown area. It has a population of 100,000 people. All the other sites the Deputy speaks of are north of Fingal. Some smaller sites are being developed with 20 or 30 houses. I live right beside this location, and what could be done here is that 1,000 units could be developed. Some 50% of them could be social housing and 50% could be affordable mortgages. The Minister of State seems to think that that is a problem. I live in an estate of 750 units where the council did this. It is a mixture of affordable mortgages. There were 400 affordable mortgages, 100 council tenants and 200 were sold privately. In this scenario, we need to fast track affordable housing. I have no problem having a mix of different types of people, but let us do it by keeping it in public control, where people can avail of a mortgage rather than paying 80% of what are unaffordable rents. Most of these people are going to be on the council's housing list and are going to be paying a huge mortgage when somebody next door has a differential rent. It is lunacy.

With regard to support, we will be pressuring Sinn Féin, in particular, which knows what the housing crisis is, to back this proposal. Something can exist in theory, but in practice this area is a homelessness blackspot.

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