Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I think the Minister engaged in a bit of a sleight of hand in his response - the same sleight of hand in which the programme for Government engages - when he said he will ensure that "public housing rental stock on public land is under the control of local authorities, approved housing bodies or other similar bodies". The point about the slogan "public homes on public land" is not primarily about who has control of public homes, although that is important. The point is that all of the public land that exists in the State should be used for public homes. None of it should be privatised at a time when we have some 100,000 people on housing waiting lists across the State. When we have enough public land to build 100,000 homes, we should be building public homes as opposed to giving developers an opportunity to profit. I will give the example of South Dublin County Council, which put the construction of 500 houses in Killinarden out to tender. Only 20% of those homes will be social housing and the so-called affordable homes are set to cost up to €290,000, which is completely unaffordable for most people.

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