Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Most Deputies have alluded to the fact that this is July and we first heard of this initiative last October. We are able to do things in this House overnight sometimes and more times it takes a year. It is worrying it has taken so long to get this body up and running. One would have to wonder about the Government's priorities, given that it has failed to progress this initiative for so long and given that some things can happy very quickly.

The Government is in a great position to do something about our housing crisis but it is not doing it. It has access to two powerful items in its favour, namely, it has access to cheap money and it has plenty of zoned land. They are two powerful items to start with. The challenge for it is the way it handles those. No one is saying it is easy. I would challenge anybody in here to be able to list all the housing initiatives that have come before us since 2011. We have all lost count of them. The number of them has been phenomenal. I would argue that if the Government had done nothing, we probably would not be any worse off. We would probably be in much the same place. We have not made up any ground.

It is a good idea for the Government to lend money to builders. The Minister of State might say that I would say that given that I have been a builder all my life and I was even a developer for a while. Currently, small builders cannot build in Ireland because the banks are closed to them. The developers who can afford to build do not need the Government's money. They might like to get some of it because they cannot get enough of it. They do not need access to the Government's money but the small builder does. The big developers have no problem garnering access to money.

A report from the Dublin Housing Supply Co-ordination Taskforce is due to be published on Thursday. The Minister of State probably read about it this morning. The article on it states that developers are sitting on planning permission for 25,000 houses and apartments in Dublin's four local authorities alone. Why are they sitting on it? It is not rocket science. One of the reasons they can sit on it, as was said during the debate on Tuesday night, is the fact the Government does not tax them for doing so. It promotes land banking. That is what that is. Sitting on land, hoarding it and not building on land that is zoned for development and that has planning permission is called hoarding. The Government facilitates that by refusing to deal with it and that is a major problem. We covered all of that on Tuesday night and I will not go over it again now. Those developers are not sitting on that land, which has full planning permission, is site ready and has the potential to provide 25,000 units in Dublin, because they do not have access to money. That is not true. They have access to money but they have other plans. Prices are going up all the time. It makes more sense for them not to build because the incentives are there not to build. It is much more attractive for them now not to build and that is what they are doing.

The Construction Industry Federation, CIF came out to defend them. The CIF makes me laugh. It does not represent the builders of Ireland, only the big boys, a bit like the Irish Farmers' Association, IFA and the farmers. The CIF is waiting for the Government to make a decision on high-rise development. It thinks the Government might let its members build a few extra floors and they will then apply for new permissions. I believe in high-rise development. It is crazy that the Government did not approve that years ago. We are covering the country in concrete. Kildare, Meath and Wicklow will be covered in concrete if we do not start building high-rise developments. It happens everywhere else in Europe and we should be doing it. However, we should not be giving people permission to build 25,000 units and then let them away with not building them, without imposing a penalty. However, that is neither here nor there in the context of this Bill.

The Minister of State indicated: "It is expected that HBFI will provide funding for projects with a minimum capacity of only ten units, equating to a loan facility of...€2 million." That is good but I would put a maximum capacity of 50 units on it also. The Government does not need to give this money to the big boys. Let us ring-fence this money for the builders who need it. Let us get the Irish builder back working. The Government should stop depending on the big developer and the markets to solve this problem because they will not do it. They may in their own time but, as indicated by many Deputies this evening and on Tuesday evening, affordability is a massive factor, but that does not interest them. The Government can do this. It can use the money to give small builders planning permission and funding to build out houses or apartments and it can ring-fence the price with them. I guarantee the Minister of State that he will get builders who are interested, but he will not get developers who are interested. I know umpteen builders who would love the opportunity. The Government will get builders to do deals to deliver affordable housing if it can help them fund it and it should be using State land for this. Why is all that State land not being put into use?

Obviously, I could not let this opportunity pass without mentioning the National Asset Management Agency, NAMA. I promise I will not say anything bold. The Minister of State indicated:

While HBFI will be a wholly independent entity from NAMA, it will utilise NAMA's experience in developing its business model in preparation for its launch later this year... It is expected that some staff will transfer from NAMA and this will be of great benefit to HBFI to allow it to be up and running in as short a timeframe as possible.

There are some challenges with respect to state aid rules, even though people keep telling in this House that there is enough cheap money. I wonder why are we spending interest rates of 15% to 20% to build schools through public private partnerships if there is plenty of cheap money available. I am not convinced there is a great deal of cheap money available.

See this speech in context