Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

-----in the country were acquired, everyone would have a house. That is the solution.

We have a proposal regarding Dublin West, which is the Taoiseach's constituency, and I challenge the Minister of State to support it. The council has sat on 90 acres of land in the greater Blanchardstown area for a number of years and has not devised a development plan. We could comfortably build at least 1,100 homes without any high density construction. They would be a mixture of apartments and houses. We could create a community with parks, facilities, an outdoor fitness area and a youth centre. We have called it "Damastown Village" and suggested a way to develop it. It would not be monotenure. If the Government wants to ban monotenure developments, it should change the local authority rules. This is simple. Allow more people into developments.

We are proposing that 50% be affordable housing, with mortgages for the very people who are suffering with large rents that account for as much as half of their incomes in some cases. The other 50% would be social housing for homeless people in the area and those who had been on the social housing list for many years.

We had an architect draw up plans, which Fingal County Council did not bother to do in recent years despite the homelessness crisis in the area escalating. We can pass these plans on to the Minister of State.

The cost would be approximately €170 million. The Government claims that money is no object and the former Minister, Deputy Noonan, stated that there was no shortage of money. Approximately half of that amount - €87 million - would be paid for by the affordable mortgage aspect and accrue profit of in or around €15 million over the 25 years of those mortgages, allowing money to be paid for community centres and community infrastructure. The other half would require Fingal County Council to use its capital budget, borrow €10 million from the Housing Finance Agency and receive an injection of €48 million from the Department. This is not a major request, given that 35% of the homelessness problem in Dublin is located in Fingal County Council's area despite it only having 22% of the homeless population.

Is the Minister of State prepared to support something like this or does he want working people to travel up the road to Hansfield where McGarrell Reilly, which was named in the Paradise Papers, is selling houses for €315,000, which the Taoiseach believes is affordable? Houses in Damastown could be sold for approximately €170,000. It is being done in Ballymun, which shows that it can be done in Damastown. Why is it not being done?

The Minister of State claims the Government does not need cross-party support, but it will get none from us anyway because there is an ideological divide. There are parties like Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour that are committed to, and put all emphasis on, the private market, and then there are other parties that believe in prioritising public need. Instead of cross-party support, a left alternative must be built and strengthened in this country. We need a left alternative that would break the EU rules for the common good, commandeer wealth and resources to end the crisis, pass emergency laws to stop evictions and run society, not in the interests of the 1%, the vulture funds and the developers, but in the interests of working class people as a whole.

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