Chris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend Deputy Eoin Ó Broin for this motion on housing and for all the work he has done around this issue. The inability to purchase new homes because they are unaffordable is nothing new to residents living in Dublin Bay South. Young working families have not been able to purchase affordable homes for a long time. Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Amazon and now TikTok have all moved into Ringsend, the Pearse Street area and right across south Dublin. As they have moved in, the prices of buying and renting even modest homes have gone through the roof. Earlier this year, Deputy Ó Broin got information under freedom of information which showed that the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage was told that Dublin City Council was under pressure to secure the funds to purchase the two sites where the affordable and public housing will be situated on the Irish Glass Bottle Company site. It is reported that many working in Dublin City Council housing section seem to doubt whether affordable homes can be delivered on the Irish Glass Bottle Company site, and even if they are delivered, it seems they will not be affordable to ordinary working families. They may be affordable to the high paid executives working in the tech companies but not to young working families who have to continue to live with their parents or pay huge rents that prevent them from saving for a home.

In June of last year, on NewsTalk, the Minister said that he would be looking at house prices in the region of €160,000 to €180,000, and from €230,000 to €250,000 on a shared equity basis. Now, it seems the affordable homes, if delivered in Ringsend, Harolds Cross or right across south Dublin and Dublin city, will be in the region of €450,000. That cannot possibly be classed as affordable. How can ordinary working families ever hope to buy a house in the community they went to school in? The Irish Glass Bottle Housing Action Group, which has campaigned tirelessly for affordable homes on the Irish Glass Bottle Company site, is extremely concerned that people will not be able to afford affordable housing there, that is if there is any affordable housing because the €450,000 clearly cannot be reached by many people who have grown up and lived in the community. The Minister needs to state clearly that there will be affordable homes on the Irish Glass Bottle Company site and that they will not cost €450,000. We need to make homes affordable again.

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