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

I thank the Taoiseach for his report on the homelessness crisis, but what I wanted to raise with him is public housing on public land. That was the main content of my question. He sort of half dealt with it. Part of the approach of Rebuilding Ireland includes the proposal to have 125,000 people in HAP households. By 2021, that will cost the State €1 billion a year. Providing these 120,000 social housing units through HAP will cost €32.9 billion over 30 years. That money would be much more deservedly put into public housing on public lands. We know that Dublin City Council has public lands on which to build at least 12,000 houses. It should get more land through other methods of acquiring land in Dublin. The Taoiseach opened a housing development recently at which he mentioned that it contained affordable homes but he forgot to mention that these houses were selling for between €320,000 and €390,000, which is certainly not affordable. We need affordable homes for workers in Tesco and Dunnes, on construction sites and in the general economy who earn under €50,000. This can be done through the plan put forward by Tom Healy of the Nevin Economic Research Institute.

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