Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

First, I have to repeat to the Deputy that the Government’s fundamental aim is to provide unprecedented funding to facilitate the largest social housing programme in the history of the State over the next five years. That is the anchor of the Government’s housing programme. We want to provide 50,000 social homes over the next five years.

In addition to that, we want to provide affordable homes through a variety of initiatives which the Minister has undertaken, not just in shared equity, or indeed where the State is now going to get involved in a new scheme to support State-built affordable homes, but also by way of the first-ever national cost-rental scheme, which is being introduced by the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, in addition to a range of other initiatives. The bottom line is that we are not building enough houses or apartments in this country to meet the needs of ordinary people and working people. The Government does not believe that funds should be competing with owner-occupiers or first-time buyers in buying up houses that have already been built. They should not be competing with first-time buyers for badly needed properties. We believe in supporting first-time buyers and owner-occupiers. That is why we have expanded the help-to-buy scheme. Sinn Féin opposed that scheme, which was availed of by 22,000 homeowners. Deputy McDonald seems to believe ordinary people should not get the help-to-buy scheme at all. She opposed it. Sinn Féin also opposed the Land Development Agency Bill, the shared equity scheme, and 16 out of 21 housing developments on Dublin City Council. These are homes that could have been built for ordinary working people.

The flaw in Sinn Féin’s proposition is that it sees no room at all for the private builder or the private sector. The State is now the main actor in housing - of that let there be no doubt - in terms of building and in terms of supporting agencies. We also need to get going as well. This has nothing to do with funds. This is to do with getting private builders to build privately so that we can get the level of housing we require. We need up to 400,000 new houses by the end of this decade. That is not all going to be done by the State on its own, yet Sinn Féin seems to think it is the only option.

The proposals that the Ministers, Deputies Darragh O’Brien and Donohoe, will be bringing forward will deal with the issue of investment funds competing with first-time buyers and owner-occupiers. Further discussions will take place later on some of the proposals. We will need the support of parties in this House to facilitate the passage through, most likely tomorrow, of the decisions that the Government will take on this matter. We want to see the legislation through tomorrow. I hope we can count on the support of Sinn Féin in that regard.

The Government perspective is very clear. Housing is a number one issue. We need to provide more and more houses. We need more supply. I do not see in the Sinn Féin policy any substantive, coherent approach to increasing that supply. Our Government’s entire effort and objective is to solve this problem. Sinn Féin’s objective is to exploit it for its own electoral and political gain. I see nothing constructive coming from that party, either at local or national level, in terms of getting houses built at a significant scale out there.

See this speech in context