Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy Paul Murphy.

There are too many hotels, too much overpriced student accommodation, not enough social housing and not enough affordable housing. I am talking about Cork city centre but I could be talking about other places too. A new hotel with 120 beds at Kent Station is now on the way, as well as a new hotel with 171 beds in MacCurtain Street, a new hotel with 183 beds at Morrison's Quay and a new hotel with 58 beds in South Mall. Overpriced student accommodation is on the way in Washington Street, Carrigrohane Road, the Lough and North Main Street, on top of the overpriced student accommodation built on the Western Road and the South Main Street.

Where is the social and affordable housing? There is very little of it. Some 43 units are on the way in White Street, 25 units in Miller Street, 17 units in Lower John Street and 33 in Grattan Street. I might be missing one or two but that is the bulk of it. If it is all added up, it is fewer than the number of beds in one of the new hotels. The gentrification of Cork city centre is a big mistake. Working people are being forced out of the city centre, forced to move miles out into the county to find affordable housing, and they become commuters. We will see what happens with the Government's proposals for public transport, but at the moment being a commuter, more often than not, means travelling to work by car.

The next big crisis, the climate change crisis, which we are already facing, is bad news. What is being done involves bad planning and it is the wrong way to go. In May of last year, Deputy Varadkar, when he was Taoiseach, went to Cork and told the Evening Echohe looked forward to the prospect of the first co-living development in Cork. It was a crazy idea at the time. One of the co-living developments in Dublin involved one kitchen for 42 people, which means overcrowding. If the idea was crazy in 2019 because of overcrowding, it is super-crazy in 2020, in the age of Covid. I hope I never see a co-living development in Cork city centre. The previous Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, said in May that he did not have any plans for scrapping the provisions for co-living developments so I am asking the new Minister tonight whether he will take a different approach to this issue.

The motion correctly criticises the absence in the programme of Government of targets for the delivery of affordable housing, the absence of a definition of "affordable housing" and the absence of price points for affordable housing. The programme claims €230,000 is affordable in an urban area or the commuter belt and that €220,000 is affordable in non-urban areas. In 2016, Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland said a three-bedroom semi-detached house could be built for €150,000. Mr. Mel Reynolds, who is obviously our foremost expert in the field, was asked his opinion and he said he believed that figure was slightly off. He cited €165,000 – in other words, 50% of the average price of a house on the market at the time, €330,000, when VAT, development profit, builder's profit, banker's profit and the price of land were stripped out. This shows why we need public housing on public land. We can eliminate most of these costs and cut some of the others. We have enough public land to build 100,000 social and affordable homes. I accept the quoted figures and prices are four years old but if the cost of building was €165,000 four years ago, it is certainly less than €200,000 now. That is what an affordable home should be.

I have some concerns about the motion pegging affordable rent as between €700 and €900 per month. That is in contradiction to the motion's target of 30% of net disposable income for a loan. For the majority of working people, 30% of their net disposable income is less than €700 to €900 per month in terms of rent. Despite that criticism, I support the motion and will be voting for it on Thursday.

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