Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to begin by paying tribute to Simon Brooke who sadly passed away yesterday. In his various roles in recent decades, he brought a focus to bear on housing problems in Ireland. He provided an insightful voice to guide policy discussions and was always generous with his time to those of all parties and none who sought his assistance. I wish to express my deep condolences and those of the Fianna Fáil Party to his family, friends and former students, who will miss his learned company. The national conversation on this most pressing issue will be all the poorer for his passing. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam uasal.

Fianna Fáil believes home ownership is good for individuals, families, communities and the country. For decades, that guiding thread linked housing policy across the State. By 1991, we had become world leaders in terms of home ownership levels, with 82% of households owning their own home and the average age of a first-time buyer standing at 26. With Government help, a household on a modest income could achieve ownership at a reasonable cost, enjoy their home and ultimately pass it onto the next generation if they so desired. The path to realising that basic, decent and honest ambition is now being closed by the policies of the Government. The rate of home ownership has plummeted to 67%, below the EU average of 69%. Germany and Austria are often held up as exemplifying the type of rental policy Ireland should follow, yet they are seeing increases in home ownership rates while ours is reducing further.

The aspirations and hopes of a generation are being stymied by a rent trap. Unaffordable house prices and unprecedented rent levels are locking them into a rip-off rental market. The cost of renting is 26% above the previous peak in 2008, with people in Dublin spending 55% of their net take-home pay on rent. The dream of owning the roof over one's head or having a place of one's own is disappearing for a generation. The ultimate reason for that is the failure of Fine Gael policy. It is most evident in the flagship Rebuilding Ireland programme and Fine Gael's abandonment of home ownership as a primary goal for the State. It is deliberate Fine Gael policy to push people into the private rental market which is becoming further commercialised and institutionalised, facilitated by the Government.

In defending Rebuilding Ireland, the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Murphy, has become the Minister for gaslighting. For example, he has welcomed what he refers to as boutique-style hotels, but which are, effectively, bedsits with a price premium whereby the rent per square foot is higher in the Liberties than in Los Angeles. He has attempted to depict missed targets and pushed-back deadlines as progress. There is blatant manipulation of figures as basic as the number of homes to be built. Rebuilding Ireland set a target of doubling output such as to deliver more than 25,000 units per annum on average over the period from 2017-2021. That is set out in black and white on page 18 of Rebuilding Ireland. In reality, it has delivered an average of 16,239 new units for 2017-2018 or 65% of the target to date. In response, the Minister stated that the target is reaching 25,000 by 2021. That is not what was set out in the announcement of the flagship plan. The result of this cynical exercise in spin is a deepening social housing emergency, shocking numbers of homeless people on our streets, unprecedented rent levels and a profound home ownership crisis. We have the highest rents ever, the highest homelessness levels in generations and the lowest home ownership rate in more than 50 years.

The Bill forms part of a suite of measures Fianna Fáil has worked on to build a ladder of opportunity for young people to achieve home ownership. We have fought to retain the help-to-buy scheme to support buyers. We have secured a new affordable housing scheme that will initially build on State-owned land 6,200 affordable units for purchase. The difference is that if Fianna Fáil was in government, it would implement and expand that scheme. Fianna Fáil is committed to the hard work of implementing policy and putting forward practical solutions, rather than grandstanding on motions that will not build an additional unit. We have produced more than a dozen housing Bills in slightly more than a year, along with a costed and workable affordable purchase scheme and a plan to expedite house building and social housing by lifting the discretionary cap, which the Minister resisted doing all year. Fine Gael likes to criticise Opposition housing policies but our housing policy can be seen on the Dáil Order Paper and in the hard-won gains in budget documents. The Government's policy can be seen in the cruel work of fiction that is Rebuilding Ireland.

The Bill seeks to address the bulk buying of estates by real estate investment trusts, REITs, cuckoo funds and the State which prevents them being available to first-time buyers. The State should be building rather than snapping up homes from under the noses of first-time buyers who are being squeezed in a vice grips by cuckoo funds and the State. The Bill will allow local authorities to earmark a certain percentage of zoned land - up to 30% at the discretion of the planning authority - for first-time buyers. It will operate on a similar basis to the current Part V provisions which ensure that 10% of units are set aside for social housing. Under the Bill, each local authority will be required to review its housing strategy and set out its requirements for rental units over the lifetime of its housing plan. This will ensure a full picture of the housing market is considered when a council sets out its future plans.

The specific goal of the Bill is to prevent the bulk buying of entire developments by investment funds or the State which freezes out first-time buyers. As part of an overall housing strategy, it contains exemptions to allow build-to-rent developments that would otherwise not be given the go-ahead, while preventing developments already in place being snapped up by investors at the last moment. Investment in new build-to-rent developments will be facilitated, but such developments must be earmarked as being for rental only as part of an overall housing plan in appropriate areas. Planning authorities will have the power to look at the concentration and proportion of build-to-rent units in communities and refuse or alter planning as required.

At the core of this issue are competing visions for our housing system. On one side, Fine Gael has abandoned the goal of supporting home ownership and instead embraced a tenure natural approach with a view to moving towards more and more rental. On the other, Sinn Féin and others criticise home ownership and just want social rented housing. Between those ideological extremes is what people actually want: to own their own home. Even surveys carried out by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform have shown a significant preference for ownership. Fianna Fáil is clear on where it stands.

We will fight for those ordinary working men and women who want something to show for their efforts, something that they can enjoy into retirement and pass on to their children should they wish. This Bill marks another round in that fight and I commend it to the House.

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