Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputies for their good wishes to the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, and me. As somebody from a large family who grew up in Army married quarters and subsequently in local authority housing, I really appreciate the start my family and I were given in life by being able to access affordable housing. It is an issue I certainly will take seriously.

The Government is keenly aware of the housing affordability challenges facing people across Ireland. It is only by taking measures all aspects of our housing system, including housing for purchase or rent and whether delivered privately or publicly, that we can begin to improve affordability for citizens across the board. This is what we wish to achieve. The measures and commitments detailed in the programme for Government seek to address these concerns. They represent the start of our ambition in delivering for citizens on this most important of policy areas. Specifically on affordability, this includes actions to deliver homes for purchase under the affordable purchase scheme at prices that are significantly discounted compared with open market values. It also includes a new form of tenure in cost rental which will deliver housing options at significantly below market rates. It also includes the delivery of at least 50,000 social homes.

In doing this, we will ensure that local authorities are central to the delivery of housing. We will task the LDA with driving strategic land assembly to ensure that the sustainable development of new and regenerated communities is well served by central services. It will be tasked to work with Departments, local authorities, State agencies and other stakeholders to assemble strategic sites in urban areas and to ensure there is sustainable development of social and affordable homes for rent and purchase. We will also work with the private sector to ensure that an appropriate mix of type of housing is provided nationally.

I believe there is a shared recognition that there is no single or simple solution to the challenges facing our housing system. In addressing these challenges, we will demand that the objectives for the delivery of affordable housing be ambitious and achievable. I am happy to confirm that a range of schemes and policy measures will be used to assist in the delivery of affordable homes as set out in the programme for Government. These include the extension of the serviced sites fund, SSF, which will assist local authorities in the delivery of affordable homes for purchase and rent. The SSF is currently being used to progress planning for some 3,200 affordable homes. Local authorities have estimated that the fund will support them in making these homes available at discounts of between 10% and 40% on market value. The SSF is assisting schemes such as that at Boherboy, Co. Cork, where 116 affordable homes are due for completion early next year. These represent the first of many new affordable homes for purchase that will receive assistance from this programme. The SSF is also supporting a cost-rental pilot development on Enniskerry Road in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, which is due for completion next year. Delivery is starting. Collectively, we have far more work to do, and we will do it.

Utilising State funds such as the SSF and LIHAF to contribute to the cost of delivering shared services infrastructure and utilities can make a real difference in reducing the ultimate cost of these homes for purchasers or the monthly rent paid by tenants in cost rental. The €310 million SSF is an important policy tool in helping us to deliver on our ambitions and we intend to expand its application as a priority.

Another important way in which we will be encouraging the development of more affordable homes is through the expansion of Part V provisions. We will expand Part V to encompass affordable purchase and cost rental homes in addition to its current important role in providing social homes. This commitment will not only add to the number of homes available in these areas, it will increase the available tenure options and assist in providing a good tenure mix within communities. Other policies committed to in the programme for Government to assist in the delivery of affordable homes include the provision of seed capital to local authorities to provide serviced sites at cost in towns and villages to allow individuals and families to build their own homes, the continued availability of affordable loans through the Rebuilding Ireland home loan scheme, strengthening the mortgage to rent scheme in order to ensure it is helping those who need it and retaining and expanding the help-to-buy scheme for new priorities and self-builds. The Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, at which I am also a Minister of State, will progress the town centre living initiative and the town centre first policy which will deliver on unlocking the potential of our historic town centres, a point raised by Deputy Pringle with regard to Donegal.

One of the Government's key priorities is the completion and roll-out of a new affordable purchase scheme. By helping to lower the entry purchase price for households, the scheme will provide an equitable way of assisting people to afford their own home, while also building a sustainable and recyclable model that reflects the State's support for home owners. The engagement of the Minister with key sectoral interests in the coming weeks and the short review of the existing provisions that he has instructed his officials to undertake will form an important part of this policy. This will ensure that primary legislation remains fit for purpose and will inform new provision he considers necessary to reflect the priorities of the Government. However, I must reiterate that in the context of the affordable purchase scheme, the Government will not support the Sinn Féin motion, which proposes using income limits based on gross salary combined with counterproductive limits on the purchase price of affordable homes. Rather, it will endeavour to accommodate each household's particular family needs and financial circumstances. That is why we intend to assess eligibility based on the proportion of its net income a household would need to buy a house that would meet its housing needs on the open market. Our scheme will take a more proportional and fair approach when it comes to these issues that have such a key impact on eligibility for prospective applicants than the Sinn Féin proposal. The Minister will announce details of the new scheme in September and confirm the arrangements under which discounted homes will be sold to eligible purchasers by local authorities.

In conjunction with our immediate aim of introducing an affordable purchase scheme, our long-term strategic aim is for the introduction of a cost rental sector. This will begin to form a vital part of the housing sector in Ireland through the course of our term in office. It is critical that this new aspect of the housing sector be developed on a firm policy footing in order to ensure that it is sustainable in the long term. Pilot projects are in development on Enniskerry Road, Emmet Road in Kilmainham, and in Shanganagh in Dún Laoghaire. These projects will help to shape the policy development that is currently under way within my Department and through an external research project that has been commissioned on our behalf by the European Investment Bank. Next year, the Enniskerry Road project will deliver two-bedroom homes for rent at €1,200 per month in an area where market rates are at least €2,000 for similar accommodation. We hope to see this model widely replicated. Cost rental has the capacity to be a sustainable means of providing secure rental accommodation to moderate income households. Utilising the development of public housing schemes and situated between social housing and the private rental market, it will form an entirely new aspect of the rental sector.

Cost rental will complement the range of other actions that will be taken by the Government to improve the entire rental sector over the longer term. In the private rental market, these measures include the regulation of short-term lettings, the reform of the fair deal scheme and the further empowerment of the Residential Tenancies Board to deliver a range of actions in order to improve the operation of the sector. We also aim to reform elements of the social housing sector and empower local authorities and AHBs to assist in delivering an additional 50,000 social housing homes over the lifetime of the Government.

We believe that everybody should have access to good quality housing to purchase or rent at an affordable price and in sustainable communities. We understand that the provision of more affordable housing has a profound benefit socially and economically, and believe that the State has a fundamental role in enabling the delivery of new homes and ensuring the best use is made of existing stock. The Minister, the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, and I are very much aware of the breadth of the task facing us in this area. I am proud to take on this challenge. The Government will put affordability at the heart of the housing system. I am confident that the extensive range of commitments in the programme for Government will prove an excellent starting point for our collective ambition to make housing more affordable for many people across Ireland. As such, I urge Deputies to support our amendment.

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