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

The housing crisis can be seen in every corner of this country, across the rental, social and private sectors. The moral disgrace of homelessness and the unprecedented highs of the social housing waiting lists have obscured another major challenge which the Government has ignored. Ordinary workers can no longer afford to buy their own homes. Homeownership in our view is an important part of Irish life. A safe and secure home is a building block for a strong community. Having a place to call one's own is the bedrock of stable family life. Working hard and owning the roof over one's head has been an aspiration that many have realised over the past few decades.

However, for an entire generation, the dream of homeownership is slipping away. While income levels have risen slowly, property prices have exploded by 90% since 2012. As the property price escalator speeds up, those left in the rental market fall further behind. Rent prices have surged over 25% higher than the 2008 peak with renters in Dublin paying over half their income for somewhere to live. The current 60% homeownership rate is the lowest since 1971. The age at which homeownership became the majority tenure category was 35 years of age in 2016. Prior to that age, more households were renting rather than owning their own home. When one compares this to previous censuses dating back to 1991, the ages which mark the changeover between renting and homeownership was 32 years in 2011, 28 in 2006, 27 in 2002 and 26 years in 1991. It is clear that homeownership is moving further away from young working people. The social contract that promises each generation a stake in their country is under strain.

What is Fine Gael doing to address this generational crisis? Since Fine Gael came to power seven years ago, it has launched six separate housing plans and relaunched them countless times. During that same period, Fine Gael has not built one single affordable home. In January of this year, the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, announced a three-pronged affordable policy, each prong more blunt than the last. The first was the Rebuilding Ireland home loan that repackages existing housing authority loan schemes. Over half the applicants, some 54%, however, have been refused a loan to date, while those who can get one are still competing for the same small supply of homes.

The second blunt prong was the cost rental pilot scheme. In 2015, the Fine Gael Government committed €10 million to a cost rental pilot project. This was reheated in January by the Minister, even though the project has yet to go to tender or have any guiding income criteria.

The third blunt failure was the affordable purchase scheme. This scheme sees €25 million committed to serving State-owned land for building affordable homes in co-operation with local authorities. Six local authorities built no homes at all last year. The Government has failed to deliver with programmes such as repair and lease. The lack of specific targets in each area means that this plan is doomed to fail before it even gets going. The lack of affordable housing scheme demonstrates the sheer incompetence and inertia that governs the Department.

All the while, the Government has not put its money where its mouth is. Despite the fanfare around the capital plan, the allocated capital budget for housing is still 24%, or €225 million, behind 2008 levels. Still, there is no definition of what is an affordable home. In the face of these ballooning property prices, Fine Gael has, at best, engaged in token gesture policies and, at worst, ignored a growing chasm in the property market.

Tonight’s Fianna Fáil motion sets down a marker. It will re-orientate the Government towards addressing the affordability gap that is swallowing up a generation. That must be placed at the heart of policy. We believe the State has a central role to play in delivering homes that someone on the average industrial wage can afford. Homeownership cannot be allowed to become the preserve of the few or the old. The next generation must get their chance to have a stake in their communities. The State owns and controls enough zoned land to build 114,000 dwellings, half of which can be affordable homes. Drawing on NAMA and local authority data, it is calculated the State controls over 3,000 ha of zoned land for housing across the country.

This total is made up of 1,691 ha controlled by NAMA and more than 1,300 ha controlled by local authorities.

This means that more than 48,000 homes could be built on council-owned zoned land and more than 65,000 homes could be built on NAMA-controlled land. We need driving ambition to realise the potential of these lands, an ambition that is sorely lacking in the Government.

The new State-led scheme that Fianna Fáil will propose will set specific local authority targets and establish a special purpose vehicle to finance the scheme along with State capital investment and re-investment of the proceeds of sales into building further homes.

This will create a small, efficient and focused housing delivery agency to monitor and deliver housing and quality. There will be localised income thresholds to reflect different circumstances in each area and a 50,000 unit target over a term of government. This compares favourably with the 10,000 target in the Fine Gael scheme. The people know the Government will not deliver on the target of 10,000 based on its abject failure to date. Fianna Fáil will press the Government for a clear commitment on this in the upcoming budget negotiations. The State should initiate the scheme with upfront and ongoing investment taking place on a sustainable off-balance-sheet basis.

Addressing the growing gap between homeowners and renters will be the defining challenge of this Dáil, one that will have profound long-lasting effects. This motion is a small step towards that end. It is time for the Government to replace spin with bricks and mortar and get affordable homes built. Anything else will be a major social and economic failure.

Will the Minister initiate an affordable housing scheme? When will the Minister commence an affordable rental scheme? When will construction commence? People do not want any more press launches, photo opportunities or nice colour brochures. They simply want homes to live in. They want affordable homes that will provide hope for a generation condemned to out-of-control rents in Ireland. They deserve a great deal better than this. They deserve a great deal better than this Government as well. The Government must act now.

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