Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Deputy O'Callaghan laid out the details very well. We need to know when this agreement regarding the provision of social and affordable housing on the site in Poolbeg will be agreed but we also need to ensure that it is the right form of agreement. On 25 May 2017, I asked the then Minister, Deputy Coveney, to set out what he envisaged the affordable housing provided within this agreement between the council, the developer and the State would be. He said that it would be predominantly affordable rental with the balance being social housing with a targeted provision for elderly people. This would be very welcome. There is a huge problem in the area involving local people not being able to afford housing and a need for affordable rental housing, which I presume will be delivered by a cost rental model. It maintains the units within public ownership and helps lower the rental costs for everyone. It is a win-win arrangement but we need to make sure that this is the case and that the Government is not going down the affordable purchase route. In this case, such an arrangement would be likely to result in very expensive properties as it is an ideal location close to the centre of Dublin. That would rule it out for the vast majority of local people even at the kind of discounts that would apply. Fundamentally, it would not be right. What the Government might call affordable housing that involves just shovelling money in from HAP and other payments to the private rental sector is not affordable housing. That is not where we need to go. Yes, we need to know when an agreement will be reached but we also need to know the details of the agreement along with confirmation that, as the former Minister, Deputy Coveney said, that it will be affordable rental with social housing for elderly people. That is what those additional 550 units above the standard social housing that will be provided must be.

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