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

On behalf of Sinn Féin, I acknowledge the significant additional work of the staff of the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, the local authorities, homeless charities, including the Peter McVerry Trust and Focus Ireland, as well as grassroots campaigners such as Inner City Helping Homeless over the past number of days. There is no doubt that as a result of that significant effort, we are not here speaking about the death of homeless people on our streets. It is important that we acknowledge that additional work and I ask that the Minister of State convey that to those staff.

I welcome the motion and Sinn Féin is happy to support it. For those who do not know what cost-rental housing is, it is not market priced housing but rental housing based on the cost of providing, financing, building and maintaining it. This allows for the provision of rental accommodation substantially below current market values and it ensures that the future cost of that rental is not tied to the fluctuations in the market, which provides for a real level of affordability. I welcome that within the motion there are some very specific targets. Unlike others, I believe the two sites mentioned are sensible sites but they should not be an exclusive list. The comments of Deputies Cowen and Jan O'Sullivan regarding other sites can be supported but we need to be in the business of mentioning specific sites and specific targets. Notwithstanding the Government's opposition to this motion, I urge it to examine those proposals and to discuss with the Deputies from the relevant constituencies future possibilities in that regard.

I listened carefully to the contribution of the Minister of State, Deputy English, and I have carefully read the counter-motion, the words of which do not match with the facts. The facts are very stark. We are now into the third year of this Government and not a single affordable housing unit to rent or purchase has been delivered through a Government scheme. The only affordable housing that exists was delivered through a scheme involving a housing co-operative and Dublin City Council, which in itself speaks volumes. At the same time, never has the need for affordable purchase and rental housing been greater not only for young couples, but for older couples, single people and a range of other people, including people like me who do not want to buy a home but would prefer to have long-term secure and affordable rental accommodation.

The State has access to land and access to capital through the Housing Finance Agency, Revenue funds, the Strategic Investment Fund and other sources, yet it is refusing to directly intervene to provide affordable rental or purchase units. There is a plethora of schemes in existence. Officials in the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government and the local authorities are exceptionally busy administering an ever-growing number of complicated schemes that have yet to deliver any units. Among these schemes are the help-to-buy scheme, which is inflating house prices in the private market - the majority of people benefitting from this scheme did not need any assistance because they already their deposits and private finance; the land initiatives, which are proving to be very slow and on at least one of those sites, if not more than one, no genuinely affordable units are likely to be delivered; and the local infrastructure housing activation fund, LIHAF, in respect of which again, in Dublin in particular, there is no guarantee of any units below €320,000. The Government has provided €25 million to local authorities to assist them in developing Ó Cualann-type projects but, again, no scheme in this regard has yet been put in place and there is no timeline for its delivery. In regard to the pilots which have been talked about for more than 18 months, not only will they not be ready until the end of this year or early next year, but the entry level rents, particularly in the Dún Laoghaire cost rental pilot, will be quite high. While such rents might become more affordable over time, there are genuine concerns in this regard. The home loan scheme is not available to people who are not first-time buyers, which particularly affects older couples and people close to pension age. Moreover, it only works if there is an affordable for sale at an affordable price and again, in many of the areas of high demand for affordable housing, they are not available. While the Government has claimed that the package of measures it announced a few weeks ago will deliver 3,000 affordable units in the short term and 10,000 over the lifetime of Rebuilding Ireland, it cannot tell us where these units will be or what they will cost.

While the Minister of State, Deputy English, mentioned balance - he is absolutely right - more than €1 billion of taxpayers' money has been given to private developers via loans or grants, without any guarantee of affordability. The only direct investment by the State in the delivery of affordable homes is €25 million. That is the balance about which many of us are so concerned. My colleagues will speak about Sinn Féin's preferred options. We have put forward many proposals in terms of mixed tenure, affordable sale and affordable rental and we will continue to pursue them. Until such time as the Government starts to take this problem seriously and invests significantly in direct local authority mixed tenure, mixed income, social affordable purchase and rental housing, this problem will not be resolved.

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