Dáil debates

Thursday, 5 July 2018

Home Building Finance Ireland Bill 2018: Second Stage

 

4:05 pm

Photo of Joan BurtonJoan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

There are also people in the private sector at the start of their careers. The CEO of the Bank of Ireland told me this morning that the starting salaries in the Bank of Ireland for people taking on careers as bankers are €25,000 to €30,000. Will the Minister of State tell me how many of those young people can afford an affordable house? We have to work on this Bill. We will co-operate with the Minister of State to help him work on the Bill to make it fit for purpose for our young people at the start of their careers who, instead of having to stay with their parents to save for a mortgage, can afford to buy a house as was traditional before the collapse.

Somebody came to me recently. There are fairly modest but lovely estates all over Dublin West. Those people are paying €1,500 a month in rent, have two kids and between them, with one working full-time and one working part-time, they earn €40,000. Will the Minister of State tell me how they will afford to buy a house? How does the Government propose to help them? A development bank approach is available all around the world. We have a huge amount of public land in this country. We could either lease the public land on a long lease via the local authority at a very low fee or almost cost-free. That would reduce the price of the house because the cost of the crazy speculation going on with land, particularly in the greater Dublin region, would be removed from the equation. As the Government recently reported, there are many potential development sites in the Dublin area. We will co-operate with the Minister of State to make this Bill fit for purpose and to provide homes for people who need to be able to buy an affordable home.

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