Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to ask about cost rental and affordable housing. No affordable housing scheme has been in place since Fine Gael and, let it be remembered, the Labour Party in government scrapped it in 2011. Now we are in the midst of an unprecedented housing crisis, of which Deputy Boyd Barrett has given examples. Dublin City Council, for its part, has led from the front. It has ambitious plans to develop both cost rental and affordable housing. It has agreed to build 330 cost rental homes, the first in the State on the old St. Michael's Estate in Inchicore and another 300 are planned for Ballymun. It also wants to deliver more than 2,000 affordable homes as part of the Poolbeg strategic development zone, SDZ, in Cherry Orchard and in Coolock as well as 325 homes as part of the land initiative. However, none of this can be delivered without a scheme that lays out the criteria for who may be eligible for such homes, the income levels that will apply, and on what grounds homes may be allocated. That needs to be urgently addressed. I referenced Dublin City Council but I know this applies to a number of local authorities. The absence of this scheme is holding back projects from proceeding. When will we see such a scheme? When will it be published?

See this speech in context