Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on housing, which unfortunately is a topic I deal with in my constituency offices on a daily basis. The Minister has responsibility for housing in the State but, like me, he is also a representative of the people of north County Dublin. As he is aware, we represent the fastest growing constituency in the country, one that has also has one of the youngest populations in Europe. Many of the people we represent are renting or looking to buy their own homes but the housing market across Swords, Balbriggan, Skerries, Rush, Lusk, Donabate and right across north County Dublin is broken. The daft.ie house price report for quarter 4 of 2020 showed that house prices in Fingal increased by 7.8%. In normal times that would be bad enough, but during the pandemic this is utter madness. Many people across north County Dublin have lost their jobs or have seen their wages cut. We know that from the workers in Aer Lingus, who have had their wages cut by 70%. Others have lost their jobs completely, their income is gone or they are on the PUP or EWSS. Nobody in Fingal saw their wages increase by 7.8%, so how can they be expected to afford a house when prices are increasing at this rate?

When an Teachta O'Brien was appointed Minister in the summer he said he wanted affordable homes delivered at a cost of between €160,000 and €250,000. Where are these homes in Balbriggan or anywhere across north County Dublin? Where are they in Swords or any of the areas we represent? I receive a stream of emails, calls and letters each week from young people in the constituency who are desperate to have the security of knowing when they close the door in the evening that they do not have to share their accommodation with someone else, that they are not confined to their mother's back bedroom and that they have their own home. It should not be beyond their reach. What we have instead is crippling high rents and the chance of home ownership gets further away from them every single day.

The same goes for the building of council houses. We must invest now in the constituency to make up for a lack of building in previous decades so that we can tackle the housing waiting list, which is currently 8,000. We must get people out of the rental trap, off HAP, and out of emergency accommodation and into decent accommodation that they own. There are so many people, especially young people, caught in a rental trap who do not qualify for social housing. They cannot even dream of owning their own home. The Minister quoted a seanfhocal in his contribution. I have another one for him. Níl aon tinteán mar do thinteán féin. It should not be beyond the aspiration of the young people that he and I are charged with representing that they would own their own home. From what they tell me, they are desperate. They have lost hope. They do not believe that this is going to happen. They have no evidence to support that, despite the claims from the Minister's colleagues about all of the houses the Government is building. There does not seem to be much of that in our constituency. People are frustrated and hurt. What hope is there for them if the house prices are rising by 10% and their wages are not going up? What hope do they have of ever owning their own home?

The shared equity scheme the Minister has talked about is only going to deliver higher house prices. It is not going to bring home ownership closer for these people. We only have to quote from the Secretary General of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, who said that the property industry wants an equity scheme because it will increase prices. The Minister is continuing with the failed polices of the previous Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, and Fine Gael. The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, is better than that. He must be ambitious, not just for our constituency but for the State. He cannot simply continue the failed housing policies of the previous Government. We know how serious the situation is. The Minister must hear it as well as I do on the ground in our constituency. The people whom we represent want to see him succeed as Minister, but they have very little hope.

I have two questions for the Minister in the short time remaining. The answers are just numbers, so they will be very quick. How many affordable homes costing, as the Minister outlined, between €160,000 and €250,000 will be delivered in Fingal by the end of the year and how many social homes will be built by the end of this year by the Government?

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