Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Figures published yesterday by Banking & Payments Federation Ireland show a surge in mortgage approval rates for October, driven by first-time buyers. Behind that figure is a very worrying spike in house prices, which reflects the broken housing policies of this Government and the previous one. On average, first-time buyers are now borrowing €10,000 more than was the case last year. It is worse for other borrowers, who are borrowing €15,000, on average, more than was the case last year. This reflects a very serious hike in house prices, which is a problem at any time but is outrageous in the middle of a pandemic when the incomes of so many people have collapsed.

The continued increase in housing prices is being compounded by Government policy. In July, the Government turbocharged the help to buy scheme, a scheme that disproportionately benefits high-income earners, transfers taxpayers' money directly into the pockets of developers and increases property prices. The Government was warned by the ESRI and others that expanding this scheme would inflate house prices, which would hurt the majority of people who are trying to buy a home, but the Government did not listen. Meanwhile, workers on much more modest incomes are totally left behind. Take-up of Rebuilding Ireland home loans for first-time buyers is down. Applications in 2020 are down by 45% and approvals are down by 50%. Since Covid, shockingly, drawdowns have collapsed by 70%. This is a consequence of the Government's discrimination against workers on the wage subsidy scheme.

A comprehensive, affordable housing plan is urgently needed. The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, spent the summer telling anyone with a pair of ears that his affordable housing plan would be published in September. We are now in December and there is no plan. The Government is five months in office and its promise to tackle the housing crisis from the get-go has fallen flat. Homes remain unaffordable for people on average incomes, rents continue to rise and house prices are up for first-time buyers despite the pandemic. The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage said last week that he has banned co-living yet, this week, a co-living development was given planning permission in Dublin.

This is not a Government that is serious about tackling the housing crisis. Behind all of the statistics and figures is an entire generation for whom home ownership is now a pipe dream, people who will struggle to keep a secure roof over their heads, people who worry about their rent and people who are in extraordinarily precarious positions, many of whom live in the box room of their mother's home, sometimes with their own children. Their situations, stories and lived reality prove that the Government's housing policies are not working.

I believe that all of this can be fixed, but only with ambition and a very significant change in policy. So long as the Government's housing policy is fashioned for wealthy developers, this crisis will remain as a feature of life in Ireland. This is the truth that must be confronted. When will the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage finally publish his affordable housing plan?

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