Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

Two hundred years ago a preposterous notion was challenged - the divine right of kings. Today an equally preposterous notion has to be challenged - the divine right of private property. We live in a state where 10,000 people are officially homeless and 250,000 workers and young people face housing unaffordability. While there is ample land and resources available to resolve the crisis, the rights of private property prevail. Land hoarding is criminal during a housing emergency and I would like to hear the Minister for Housing, Planning and Environment say this. Private developers are sitting on land waiting for prices to rise. The developer Cairn has enough land to build 14,000 homes in and around Dublin, but it has only built 399 in 2018. The Government's solution is to pay private developers to build on State land, while they hoard their own, which is incredible.

A right-wing ideology is preventing resolution of the housing crisis, while the establishment parties have turned their backs on the provision of public housing. The Taoiseach's stigmatising and divisive remarks last week are testament to this. He spoke about people who paid versus those who did not. While he did not mention the latter, we all know what he implied. One in five people used to live in public housing; these are the people Fine Gael is stigmatising. Public house building on a major scale rescued tens of thousands of families from the slums and lanes. This generation also needs to be rescued. NAMA should have been turned into an instrument that would end the housing crisis, but, of course, it was not. The Player Wills site on the South Circular Road in Dublin could accommodate about 1,000 affordable homes or apartments for workers and young people in this city where the housing crisis is most acute. Will the Minister intervene to stop the selling off of the site and not allow the development to happen?

The crisis can only be resolved by a large-scale public house building programme. We need an emergency programme. Local authorities and NAMA have enough land zoned residential to build 114,000 homes. They own three quarters of all land zoned residential in Dublin where the crisis is acute. As that land could accommodate more than 71,000 homes, why is it not happening? Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government figures indicate that even if they were built privately, a one-bedroom unit could be built for between €144,000 and €183,000; a two-bedroom unit for between €150,000 and €195,000; a three-bedroom unit for between €167,000 and €209,000; and a four-bedroom unit for between €177,000 and €220,000. They are from private developers and incorporate the price of land. Imagine what could be done on local authority land and if the costs of a private developer were cut out. People could be supplied with affordable homes at half of the price the Minister has touted as being affordable.

We have heard a lot from Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil on radio today that they want to hear solutions. We have been offering solutions in the Dáil for about five years. The solution is very clear: it is to build on publicly owned land using the resources we have available.

Solidarity has put forward four examples of how this could be done in areas where it has representatives. In Damastown in Dublin West up to 1,200 affordable and social houses and homes could be built. The situation is similar at the sites at Kilcarbery in the South Dublin County Council area which the Government is going to sell, Old Whitechurch Road in Cork city and aBelcamp in Dublin Bay North. We have put forward four viable plans, but, unfortunately, we are up against ideological opposition. This is becoming an international phenomenon, whereby governments that follow a like-minded ideology to that of the Government are refusing to invest in the provision of public homes. In America and throughout Europe homelessness is at record levels. The only way the crisis can be resolved is if there is a complete change, with parties that are not wedded to this ideology, that will oppose capitalism and private property rights and build public homes on public land.

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