Johnny Guirke (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Here we go again back to the good old days. It is the good old days for developers who have an open door directly into the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to write the policy for the Minister. The shared equity scheme is in tatters. The ESRI has dismissed it. Auctioneers have dismissed it. Fine Gael councillors in Dublin City Council - one of whom is a senior adviser in the Department of Finance - have dismissed it. Two of the Minister's Green Party colleagues in Government have dismissed it. They have said that the €75 million allocated for it should be put directly into building public houses.

The question is why the Minister is persevering with it. The only answer can be that we are back to the good old days of Fianna Fáil in government aided and abetted by its developer friends. They come straight in the front door with a nod and a wink, a pat on the back and a deal done. Developers wrote this policy for the Minister when Sinn Féin told them to sling their hook. I am referring to the developer friends who, along with others, bankrupted and destroyed the country.

A little over a year ago the population of our country voted for seismic change. They voted for something different. They voted for people who would stand up for them and introduce a social housing building programme never before seen in the history of the State. This shabby proposal is not that change. Young people in our country need affordable and public housing built directly by this State through our local authorities. The Minister is now almost eight months into his brief as the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. We still have not been told how much an affordable house should be.

My constituents in Enfield, Navan, Trim and all around County Meath need hope.

They need certainty that they will be able to buy their own home and be able to afford it. This half-baked measure must be scrapped and the Minister must build direct-build affordable housing for people.

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