Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is clear from yesterday that we have finally seen the shape of the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, and his approach to housing. He was appointed three months ago and at that stage he and incoming Taoiseach announced a review of the Government's housing strategy. It was clear from listening to the terms of that review that the Government was not satisfied with the targets and delivery of the Minister, Deputy Coveney's plan to date. Since then, the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, has either directly announced, or his Department has leaked to the newspapers, 62 separate proposals over two and a half months, all indicating possible or proposed changes to the Government's housing action plan. However, when one looks at the detail of what was announced yesterday, both in the Budget Statement and at the Minister's press conference, one sees that virtually nothing has changed from the plan that has been in place for over a year.

Let us consider some of the measures. The first is social housing. In October last year, the Minister, Deputy Coveney, announced the targets for 2018. According to his press release, the social housing target for 2018 was just under 5,900 units built and bought by local authorities and approved housing bodies. Yesterday, the announcement was 5,900 social housing units built and bought by local authorities and approved housing bodies. There is, therefore, no increase in what was announced yesterday, despite the fact that the Taoiseach and the Minister had given a clear indication a number of times in the House that they would go beyond the Minister, Deputy Coveney's target. The Minister also announced 3,000 additional social housing units above the Minister, Deputy Coveney targets. However, they are not to be delivered next year but in 2019, 2020 and 2021.

While those numbers are welcome, they are nowhere close to the cross-party Committee on Housing and Homelessness recommendation last year of 10,000 social housing units to be delivered every year over the course of the plan. That is 40% above what the Minister is currently proposing. The bottom line on social housing is not that the Government is not meeting its targets - it is meeting them without a problem - but that the targets are nowhere close to enough. The reason is that the Government is not investing a sufficient amount of capital in social housing. Sinn Féin's alternative budget proposed, within the fiscal space, an additional €700 million to provide an extra 4,000 houses in addition to the Government's commitments. That would have met the Committee on Housing and Homelessness target of 10,000. Until the Government starts to do that, and that will probably not happen until 2022 at least, it will not begin to get a grip on the housing crisis.

The same point can be made about vacant housing. One of the frustrating issues for members of the housing committee is the fact that it is quicker and cheaper to bring vacant housing stock back into use than to build new properties. There is a significant number of such properties. The census states that it is 189,000 while the GeoDirectory claims it is 90,000. Whatever the figure, if the Government was serious about this issue it could bring thousands of such units into use for social and affordable housing. We still have no vacant home strategy despite the fact that the Minister, Deputy Coveney, had finished it before he moved to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The much discussed vacant homes tax that the Taoiseach said he would get the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, to examine was nowhere to be seen yesterday. There is no increase in the budget for either of the funding streams for local authorities to bring vacant homes back into use. In fact, the language of the Minister is becoming increasingly pessimistic by suggesting that perhaps there are no units to be acquired. Sinn Féin's view is that whatever the total number of vacant units that exist the Government should proactively target 20% of them through increased funding and more of a carrot and stick approach, led by local authorities.

There is one issue in housing on which I agree with Deputy Thomas Byrne, although most of what he said about housing did not make any sense. The big absence in this budget is something for affordable renters or purchasers. It is important to clarify who we are referring to here. Affordable housing targets households whose gross income is less than €75,000 per year. That means the houses for purchase are priced somewhere between €170,000 and €260,000. The Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, refers to affordability at €320,000. My household would need an income of €91,000. Thankfully, a Deputy might be able to afford that, but ordinary working families cannot. Will any of the schemes announced or re-announced yesterday, such as the infrastructure fund, the new home building fund and the land initiatives, deliver houses for purchase at €260,000 or less? As far as I can see, the answer is "No". Sinn Féin outlined clear alternatives, such as giving local authorities an additional €400 million to deliver, in conjunction with the approved housing body sector, a stream of 2,000 affordable rental units and 2,500 affordable purchase units with a maximum price of €225,000. Unfortunately, the Minister ignored our advice.

As regards homelessness, there are no additional Housing First targets to get long-term homeless people, particularly single people, out of emergency accommodation. That is a real weakness. In addition, there was no funding allocated to the new quality standards office and its inspection regime, an important proposal from the Dublin Region Homeless Executive to set up an office across the State to roll out quality standards and inspections of emergency accommodation. There appears to be no funding for it which means, unfortunately, it may not happen. If it does, and I hope the Minister will clarify that in the coming days, it must ensure that all emergency accommodation is inspected, not just the accommodation directly funded by the HSE or the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, and that the inspections are fully independent and not carried out by local authorities or the Department.

Traveller accommodation is one of the greatest scandals of our housing system. A paltry extra €3 million is allocated for next year, despite the fact that an extra €40 million at least is required according to Sinn Féin's alternative budget. Local authorities are still not spending the money they are getting because the Minister is not putting adequate pressure on them. Last June, only 10% of the funding for this year had been drawn down. Even if there is a small increase next year there is no guarantee that it will be spent.

In the immediate aftermath of the Grenfell Tower tragedy in London, we all became more acutely aware of potential fire risks, particularly in multiple unit developments. It is surprising that there is nothing in the budget for enhancing fire safety in new builds, particularly to provide for mandatory inspections in all newly built, multiple occupancy dwellings in the future. Again, Sinn Féin made a reasonable proposal in this regard in its alternative budget, to spend approximately €800,000 on giving local authorities the staff to ensure that every development, apartment complex and multi-unit development would have a mandatory fire safety inspection by a local authority before getting its fire safety certificate.

There is no additional funding for domestic violence emergency accommodation or step-down facilities, despite this area being chronically underfunded. There is no recognition of the need to provide adequate figures, be they from Tusla or the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, on the levels of adult and child homelessness directly resulting from domestic violence.

Yesterday's budget is deeply disappointing with regard to housing. There are no increased targets for social housing delivery and there is no significant attempt to tackle the affordability crisis. In fact, the over-reliance on the private sector, which was the hallmark of the Minister, Deputy Coveney's plan, is repeated. Of the 25,000 social housing tenancies alleged to be delivered next year, 77% of them are in the private rental sector subsidised by the taxpayer. That is bad for the tenant and bad for the Exchequer. I thought the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, would bring something new to the job. I thought he would be the Minister who redirected housing policy towards a significant expansion of public social and affordable housing. On the basis of the evidence we have from yesterday and today, that does not appear to be the case.

I will not comment on the contribution of my colleague on the Joint Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Pat Casey, because he and I agree on many issues. However, I propose to comment on the remarks made by his party colleague, Deputy Thomas Byrne, who has left the Chamber. The idea that reducing VAT on private dwellings is a good policy beggars belief. It was one of the many failed policies that drove the boom and bust in the housing market in the period leading up to 2008. Crucially, there is no way of ensuring such a reduction would be passed on to the purchaser of the house by means of a reduced price. It can be pocketed by the developer without delivering any benefit. Even on the basis of Deputy Cowen's proposal, the reduction would not reduce the price of houses below €320,000 or €310,000, which is not an affordable price for those who need homes.

Contrary to Deputy Thomas Byrne's remarks, Sinn Féin has made clear proposals - they are in our alternative budget - to directly fund local authorities to provide a stream of affordable rental properties for those not on social housing waiting lists and to allow local authorities to work in conjunction with the approved housing bodies to produce, on a large scale, the types of good quality, affordable homes being built by the Ó Cualann housing association in Ballymun and sold for between €170,000 and €225,000. This is what Fianna Fáil should have been getting Fine Gael to do in the budget. It clearly failed to do so, however, and there is no point standing half in opposition and half in government criticising a budget for failures when one intends to vote for it when we come to decide on the financial resolution.

The central criticism Sinn Féin has made of the Minister's policies in recent years has been the failure to invest. The budget does not provide any money in addition to funding announced in June or July last. We proposed €1.1 billion in addition to the funding announced by the Minister yesterday. This funding will only get us to the place where we are beginning to meet real housing need. If we do not provide this level of investment, we will not achieve the required output of social and affordable housing and the housing crisis will continue to worsen. For this reason, I and my colleagues in Sinn Féin will not vote for this aspect of the budget.

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