Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move:

That Dáil Éireann:

notes that:— the Affordable Housing Scheme was stood down by the Fine Gael-Labour Government in 2011;

— the Confidence and Supply Arrangement for a Fine Gael-led Minority Government contains a commitment to ‘significantly increase and expedite the delivery of social housing units, remove barriers to private housing supply and initiate an affordable housing scheme’;

— Dublin’s residential property prices have increased 90.6 per cent from their February 2012 low, whilst residential property prices in the rest of Ireland are 66.7 per cent higher than their low point in May 2013;

— the Residential Tenancies Board third quarter of 2017 Rent Index showed the national standardised average rent for new tenancies was €1,056 per month, up from €770 in 2012, an increase of 37 per cent;

— in Dublin, this index showed the average rent stood at €1,518, up from €972 in 2012, an increase of 56 per cent;

— Daft.ie has recorded a national rent increase of 82 per cent since 2012 to €1,227, up from €677 in 2011;

— Dublin’s rents in the fourth quarter of 2017 were €1,772 on average, compared to €1,060 in the fourth quarter of 2011, an increase of 67 per cent;

— the total individual average earnings have increased from €36,079 to €36,919, an increase of €840 or 2.32 per cent from 2012-2016, and this would lead to an average take home wage of €29,844, based on the latest statistics by the Central Statistics Office; and

— the average gross annual household income for the State in 2015-2016 was €57,184.40, which was 7.1 per cent higher than the €53,392.04 figure recorded in 2009-2010;condemns:— the failure to build affordable homes since 2011;

— the delays in undertaking an affordable rental pilot scheme since it was announced in 2015;

— the lack of specific targets, dates and locations for affordable homes under the Affordable Purchase Scheme announced in January 2018; and

— the fact that the capital housing budget is still 24 per cent behind 2008 levels and is projected to remain at €1.16 billion per annum under the new National Development Plan 2018-2027; andcalls on the Government to:— earmark an additional capital investment for a State-led Affordable Housing Scheme in 2019, to directly build in key areas across the country with an initial State investment complementing off-balance sheet funding mechanisms such as credit union finance;

— ensure the Housing Needs Assessment programme is expedited and fully integrates local affordability data to build an accurate local image of affordability requirements;

— equip the National Regeneration and Development Agency with a specific affordable housing remit;

— establish an Affordable Housing Scheme with local income criteria, subject to repayments being no more than 35 per cent of the household’s net income after tax and social insurance (PRSI);

— review and upgrade local authority staffing capacity;

— set out clear targets in each county for affordable homes;

— expedite the establishment of a cost rental model across the country with clear localised income criteria and location targets;

— utilise State and local-authority owned lands in the development of social and affordable units; and

— establish a new Housing Delivery Agency to oversee the delivery of said targets issuing monthly progress reports.

I am sharing time with Deputies Casey, Cassells, Michael Moynihan and Curran.

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