Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Mar gheall ar pholasaí Fhine Gael agus Fhianna Fáil, ní bheidh a teach féin ag mórchuid d'oibrithe ar fud an Stáit. Oibríonn na daoine so go dícheallach agus go crua. Chíonn siad ó tuairisc na seachtaine seo nach bhfuil toil pholaitiúil ag an Rialtas le luach na dtithe seo a ísliú. Tá an gnáthduine fágtha ar leataobh gan teach ar phraghas réasúnta le fáil acu. Tá an dóchas imithe ag na hoibrithe agus na teaghlaigh seo go mbeidh a dteach féin acu. Is ar an Rialtas atá an locht.

This week, the Society of Chartered Surveyors released the Real Costs of New Apartment Delivery 2020 report. The report reveals the full development and purchase costs of residential housing developments in Dublin and its commuter belt for last year. For workers and families looking to buy or rent an affordable home, it made for very grim reading. The cheapest apartment detailed in the report was €359,000. To buy that, a working couple would need to have a deposit of €36,000 and a gross income of over €90,000. The cheapest apartments in Dublin city centre cost a staggering €439,000. To buy that property, a couple would need a deposit of €44,000 and a gross salary of €112,000. The Tánaiste knows as well as I do that these prices are beyond the reach of the vast majority of workers and families in this State.

Under the watch of Fine Gael in government, the price of homes has risen so high that working people on good incomes can no longer afford to buy their own home. That is the reality. An entire generation of workers has been locked out of home ownership. That is why 70% of the apartments outlined in the report of the Society of Chartered Surveyors are not even for sale. They are being developed for a build-to-rent market, snapped up by institutional investors, vulture funds or so-called cuckoo funds that are exploiting the scarcity of housing to turn over massive profits. They have been aided and abetted in doing so by a tax regime brought in by a Fine Gael Government that gives them the upper hand over workers and families. The rents they charge are excessive and a disgrace. In Dublin suburbs and the commuter belt, rents now range from €1,800 to €2,000 per month. Here in Dublin, a month's rent will set a renter back between €2,200 and €2,600. If ever there was proof of how broken our housing system is, this is it.

The Tánaiste said that he would stand up for those who got up early in the morning to go to work. What about the hard-working people, especially young people, who get up every morning but cannot afford to rent or buy a home? They are paying huge rents and cannot afford a home, or they are forced to live far away from their work and families, condemned to spend hours making the long commute to work, day in and day out. There is another cohort of people who are living at home with their parents. This is not only an issue in Dublin but is repeated throughout the State.

The former Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, repeatedly promised to deliver 6,200 affordable homes by 2021. Not one of those has been delivered; not one. Does the Tánaiste accept that Fine Gael's housing policy has failed these families? Does he accept that proposals brought forward by Fine Gael have fuelled this issue? What is he going to do to deliver affordable homes for working people who want to rent or buy?

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