Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

What happened ten years ago is important because some of us stood up in this House at the time and begged the then Government not to sell off the NAMA portfolio but instead to use it for social and affordable housing. Had the then Government listened, we would not have the crisis we face now. I am appealing to the Government not to do the same with the Land Development Agency.

The Tánaiste said that €450,000 is at the top end but Dublin, Dún Laoghaire, Galway and Cork are not small places. These are the epicentres of the housing crisis and €450,000, €400,000 or €350,000 is not affordable in anybody's language for the vast majority of workers. How could the level of what is affordable be different in different areas anyway? If it is affordable it is based on people's incomes, not on the area they live in so why are there different caps in different areas? It is because the developers in those areas told the Government that under no circumstances should it sell houses as affordable houses for €200,000 or €300,000 if the developers are selling them for €400,000 and €500,000 on the open market. The Government is dancing to the tune of the developers and the result is that affordable housing will not be affordable, even on public land, which the Government will let these vultures, cuckoos and bloodsuckers plunder.

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