Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is important to acknowledge, however, that affordable cost rental across Europe looks at 40-year plus loans and not the 25 to 30-year loans the EIB is providing for St. Michael's. For the Enniskerry Road project, I understand there is an innovative type of financing that allows it to be financed via the Housing Agency up to 40 years. If a similar arrangement was provided for St. Michael's, we could bring the rents down. The Minister is absolutely right that we must get the finances right. The key, however, is the scale of capital intervention by central government at the start and the length of the loan. If we find the right formula the rents could be brought down.

The difficulty with the Clonburris prices is that we must find affordable homes priced between €170,000 and €250,000 to meet the needs of people who are currently applying and being accepted for Rebuilding Ireland home loans but for whom the offer is below €200,000. While the Minister is right that we could combine the 10% deposit with support from the help to buy incentive, if a person's loan offering from the local authority is only €170,000 or €180,000, it does not do it. Even though there has been a shift, as with the O'Devaney Gardens site and other projects, the talk was still of €310,000. We are moving in the right direction but we need units priced between €170,000 and €250,000 for first-time buyers and rents below €900 per month. These can be delivered. We have seen it with Ó Cualann in Ballymun and from the reply to a parliamentary question from the Minister yesterday. I am confident that with the right financing these types of units and prices can be delivered. I would ask that the Minister considers this.

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