Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Sinn Féin for tabling this motion. It has been tabled in advance of the legislation coming to the House and being discussed in detail but given how legislation has been debated here in the last few months, we do not know how much time we will actually get to discuss legislation in detail, especially when we get to amendments. Any opportunity that we get to discuss housing and the provisions of a Bill, although we do not yet have the exact details, is welcomed by the Labour Party, so I thank Deputy Ó Broin and Sinn Féin for tabling this. The previous speaker made a charge to the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, that this is a return to type for Fianna Fáil.

That is a very wounding charge because the roots of this housing crisis are in the collapsed economy of 2008, which is when our entire economy was leveraged against the construction industry. When the housing industry failed, everything fell with it and that is why we have a housing crisis now. We have not been able, 13 years on from that crash, to get ahead of and beat this housing crisis. In my first contribution on housing in this Dáil, in a debate with the Minister in his new role, I said he would have to choose between two different Fianna Fáil legacies. One is the traditional Fianna Fáil legacy which the party prides itself on, of building local authority housing at a great scale, creating communities throughout the country, not just in Dublin. Fianna Fáil was not the only party to do that back in the middle of the 20th century but it has a proud tradition in that regard. The other is the legacy of the late 1990s and early 2000s, which led ultimately to where we are now and the current housing and homelessness crises. It is still premature to make a judgment because the Land Development Agency Bill has not been brought before the House yet but the shared equity scheme, as presented, is a genuine cause for concern. I know the Minister will say the Opposition is being dogmatic and unfair and that it is unsurprising that we are against it. Maybe it is not unsurprising that the Opposition is against the scheme or has questions regarding it but it is not just Opposition Members who are against it or have serious questions about it. As has been mentioned already, the ESRI and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform have also raised questions. In the motion itself, Sinn Féin quotes the House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts and its concerns over shared equity schemes. When we have Sinn Féin quoting reports from the British Houses of Parliament, then we need to sit up and take notice. Maybe there are some genuine questions here that need to be tackled, answered and resolved in advance of this legislation being brought before the House in its proper form.

The tone of the debate around housing also has to change. We need to focus on policy, which is why the Labour Party welcomes this opportunity to talk about this policy. Increasingly there has been an overly personalised element to the debate between the Minister and the senior Sinn Féin spokesperson, Deputy Ó Broin, which needs to end. This issue is too important. People have been contacting my office who are unaligned, as far as I can tell, to any party or campaign but have concerns about this shared equity scheme on a number of different levels. In particular, many of them see this as a developers' charter. The Minister and I represent the same constituency. We represent the same people who are having the same experiences in the youngest constituency in the State. We both know the levels of negative equity that existed, the impact of the crash and the pyrite crisis, which was so heavily focused in Fingal. There is an awful lot of damaged psychology in relation to the housing market in our own constituency, as well as around the country. Getting this right and getting an affordable housing scheme right is so important for constituencies like ours. In such young constituencies there are many young people who have been renting for a long period of time. Some may have cobbled together a deposit although the majority have not. They need something to hope for and they are genuinely concerned about this scheme.

Inequality in this country is growing at a rate that will take decades to reverse if we do not act now. The wealthiest 20% in Ireland has a median wealth of €835,000 per household while the poorest 20% has a median wealth of only €1,000. The figure of €835,000 is up from €560,000 in 2013, which is still an eye-watering sum for so many people. Wealth has increased because house prices have increased. Furthermore, 70% of all household wealth is held by people over 50 years of age. The bulk of wealth in this country is held by older people and not by younger people, who are locked out of the housing market and unable to get in.

People have genuine concerns about being able to get into the housing market because there are no measures on, or definition of, affordability. There is concern that developers will be setting the agenda in this regard. A few estates have been built in our constituency, and I am sure this is reflective of other locations as well, where the first phase of a development that is built will generally have houses that are generous in size. Those houses will be just about affordable, or just above it. As subsequent phases are built, however, the houses become smaller and the prices become higher. Further planning applications then go in to change densities when people's eyes are off the ball following the original application. That is what happens when developers are allowed to control a market and affordability. The houses get smaller and the prices get bigger.

An affordable housing scheme must tackle that issue at the root and this proposal does not seem to do that. Concern about this aspect has been expressed by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the ESRI, as well as the Opposition and other voices here and in the UK. Opposition to this scheme is coming from people who want to see an affordable housing scheme work, including the Labour Party, but who have genuine concerns regarding this proposal.

On the issue of wealth inequality, if people want to play the capitalist game and buy 1,000 shares in a multinational company on the stock market, then that is their prerogative. They can do that and deal with that decision themselves. Those people, however, are not taking 1,000 shares out of the pockets of young people seeking and needing to buy a home. When investors or people in the top 20% of those with wealth in the bank, having accumulated it in previous decades, go into a market and buy houses on that market at inflated prices, which only they can afford because the developer sets the purchase prices, the resulting intergenerational wealth transfer only serves to fix the wealth inequality.

According to the OECD, it will take five generations - that is, 150 years - for an Irish person descended from people in the bottom 20% of incomes just to be able to afford a home. It is two generations in Denmark. It should not take any generations. As the Minister said, people on decent wages should be able to afford decent homes. That is not the case now. The problem is if the affordable housing scheme does not work, and we think it will not, and we do not solve this issue, then we will be looking at the prospect of it being 150 years before those in the bottom 20% of incomes will ever be able to buy their own homes. In the absence of a local authority house building programme of any great scale, that is an incredibly bleak and grim prospect for people who just want and need roofs over their heads.

The Minister has staked his political reputation on affordable housing. He wanted this Ministry. As I do, he represents a constituency where people want and need to see an expansion of affordable housing provision. We want to support the provision of affordable housing and we will look at the merits of all legislation in this regard as it appears. However, we are genuinely concerned by what we see in this proposal.

Elements of this Sinn Féin motion must be examined. In fairness, this motion has articulated all the questions from the various actors in this State and abroad regarding genuine concerns about this proposal. We cannot go back to having a developer's charter. We must put the people who need houses first. We need a scheme which will deliver affordable housing opportunities for those people and their communities and tackle the existing wealth inequality rooted in home ownership. If that aspect is not turned around as soon as possible, this wealth inequality will only deepen and grow and have negative and damaging impacts on generations of Irish people.

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