Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

One of the main aims of Rebuilding Ireland was the construction of 50,000 social housing homes and their addition to the social housing stock over the period of the five-year plan. The additional funding secured at the time of the last budget for the five-year capital plan we have for Rebuilding Ireland means that we can now meet the joint committee's recommendation that 50,000 new homes be added to the social housing stock. The affordability scheme was stood down in 2011 because it was not necessary after the previous Government - prior to 2011 - had effectively destroyed the economy. As we all know, there was a massive decrease in house prices. That is why we had to stand down the affordability scheme. At the time, affordability was not a problem. People fell into massive negative equity. We are still dealing with the long tail of the financial crisis in the banking, property, construction and housing sectors. There will be affordability where it is needed. Every local authority attended the second housing summit, at which I spoke about our ambitions for the provision of affordable housing and referred to the affordable purchase, cost rental and Rebuilding Ireland home loan schemes. Obviously, the challenge is greater in some areas than in others. The Rebuilding Ireland home loan is available in every local authority. We are seeing significant demand for the new scheme across the country. I can give the Deputy a breakdown of the projects involving 3,000 affordable homes for which finance has been secured or plans are in place. It will include a breakdown of from where they will come. I note that the previous Part V affordability scheme in 2008 produced approximately 3,000 homes only. One of the problems with the scheme under the 2009 Act was that because it allowed for a mix of social and affordable homes, there was a tendency to provide more affordable homes and fewer social houses. That had a negative impact on our ability to secure the type of mix we wanted to secure. This is a different and a better way of going about ensuring affordability.

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