John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy Damien English, are both well aware that an increasing number of people who are not eligible for social housing cannot afford to buy a home. The reason is that house price inflation is outpacing wage inflation. The Ministers are aware of this development because they responded to it in Rebuilding Ireland by introducing a home loans scheme. While the scheme is fine insofar as it goes, the problem is that it does not provide for an increase in supply and it is the lack of supply that has created the current problem in the housing sector.

The Minister's amendment refers to the local infrastructure housing activation fund, LIHAF, and so forth. The policy document, Rebuilding Ireland, is two years old. LIHAF was first announced by the then Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, in October 2016 when he allocated €50 million to the scheme, yet two years later only €1.6 million or €1.7 million has been drawn down. We have not seen any urgency demonstrated in respect of this project. The Department is stalling a programme that should be rolled out in a much more timely fashion. In advance of the announcement of Rebuilding Ireland two years ago, the Joint Committee on Housing and Homelessness expressed serious concern that the Department would not have sufficient capacity to roll out the necessary programme and called for the establishment of a national housing body.

Deputy Darragh O'Brien referred to off-balance sheet investment or funding for housing. This form of investment has a role to play in the provision of affordable housing and the cost rental market. However, it has not developed in the way in should have developed. These issues have been identified and debated in the House time and again, yet no action has been taken to address them.

In my constituency, which Deputy Ó Broin also serves, a strategic development zone, SDZ, is being developed with nearly 8,500 housing units. While the SDZ plan includes sufficient capacity and detail to provide social and affordable housing, Government intervention is needed to make clear which funding mechanism will facilitate this development. There are numerous opportunities in the greater Dublin area to develop schemes of this nature but they require immediate and direct Government intervention.

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