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

Now that the dust has finally settled on the spin of yesterday's announcements, it is very clear to anybody looking at this objectively that the housing commitments in yesterday's announcements are underwhelming, unclear and wholly inadequate. The key test here is how much additional capital spending the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage secured above that which was already committed to by the outgoing Government, and how many additional homes above the target already set by the former Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, in Rebuilding Ireland will the budget deliver. The answer is very simple. The total extra capital spend above the pre-existing commitments is a meagre €160 million. In fact, it will deliver fewer than 1,000 genuinely social and genuinely affordable homes above what we would have got otherwise. There is just €125 million extra for social housing above the Minister's predecessor's commitments, which will deliver only 593 extra social homes. Astonishingly, we heard in the Minister's press conference today there is just an extra €35 million to deliver 400 genuinely affordable homes to rent.

Those figures are the added value that the Fianna Fáil Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, has brought to budget 2021. Let me go through the numbers bit by bit. On social housing, the Minister is correct that there will be 10,300 real social homes built or bought by local authorities and approved housing bodies next year. The Minister is also correct in saying that is 1,764 more than will be delivered this year if the target is met. However, as Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy had already promised 1,171 of those. We have 100,000 households waiting for social housing, when we take into account the council lists and those on the housing assistance payment and in the rental accommodation scheme. We have more than 10,000 adults and children in emergency accommodation funded by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Tusla and the Department of Justice, and in un-funded hostels. Yet, all the Minister could secure in these budget negotiations is funding for 593 additional social homes.

That is truly shocking. Let us look at the corollary: the increased subsidisation of private landlords for social housing tenancies. Deputy Eoghan Murphy, the previous Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, promised to deliver more real social homes than subsidised private rental tenancies for people on the housing lists next year. The current Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, has reversed that commitment. Next year, there will be an extra 18,250 subsidised social housing tenancies in privately owned premises, which represents almost two thirds of the total number of tenancies. When expenditure on HAP, the rental assistance scheme, the social housing current expenditure programme and rent supplement payments are combined - the latter payments come from another Department - we see that rental subsidies will breach €1 billion for the first time in the history of the State.

Although an affordable housing plan with targets and regulations was promised before the budget, it has not materialised. Just €35 million in additional funding has been provided for 400 cost-rental tenancies but we do not know if they will be delivered next year or if they will be genuinely affordable. The rest of the additional funding relates to high-risk shared equity loans to allow people to borrow more than they are currently allowed under the Central Bank's macroprudential rules. In fact, the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government cannot even get a bad scheme right. He is locked in a battle with his counterpart in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath, and with his Fine Gael colleague, the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, in the Department of Finance. They cannot even agree on and announce the scheme for which they have allegedly got such meagre funding.

I do not understand what this Government has against private renters. These are renters who are unable to access HAP. There will be no ban on rent increases and no reductions in rent. The Government's message to these people is very simple: private sector renters are on their own. This Government has done nothing for them.

The meagre increases in funding for Traveller accommodation, disability adaptation grants and homelessness prevention will mean that those who are on the margins of our housing system will remain on those margins under this Government.

One does not just have to believe the Opposition; one can read today's newspapers. The verdict of The Irish Timeson the housing budget is that "it is really unlikely that anywhere near the original target, let alone the new one, will be built". The verdict of the Irish Independentis that the housing budget "is great for builders and landlords". It goes on to say "If Fianna Fáil wanted to show social housing credentials, they certainly weren't in evidence yesterday."

The Government had a clear choice yesterday. It could borrow at historically low interest rates - in fact, negative interest rates at which one is paid to borrow - and invest in a public housing programme that would meet the need for social and affordable housing in our society. It could have invested up to €3 billion directly in real social housing and genuinely affordable homes built by local authorities, approved housing bodies and community housing trusts. Alternatively, it could have followed the same failed path of the former Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, has made very clear today which path he has chosen. He has produced a budget of which Deputy Eoghan Murphy would be proud. It is a negligent budget which constitutes a dereliction of duty. The hundreds of thousands of people who need social and affordable housing are much the worse off for it. Shame on the Government for producing such a bad budget before spending two days dishonestly misrepresenting the fact that it will not assist those in desperate need of the Government's help to secure affordable homes to rent or to buy.

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