Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There has been a small error with the Bill. Naming a Bill that will drive up house prices and offer rental at €1,100 a month in Cork as an Affordable Housing Bill is a farce. Affordability cannot be based on the market price; it has to be based on income.

House prices in Cork rose last year by 11%. For most of my constituents, the average family home in Cork is so far out of their reach that they cannot even imagine owning their own home. Telling them that affordable housing will be less than €400,000 in Cork gives the majority of people no hope. Does the Minister realise how much €400,000 means to ordinary people? That is not affordable. Whether it is a cap, target or aim, when we discuss affordability and affordable housing we should not be hearing figures such as €400,000. It is that simple. That scares people because they know the 4% increase that was brought in by the last Government as a cap on rents became the target and is now just the norm. People know that developers and speculators will see the €400,000 as a figure to aim for. Where has that figure come from? It should not be a target and it should not be there at all.

As I said earlier, the average house price in Cork rose by 11% last year and it is now €310,000. We know that an 11% increase was ridiculously high when house prices were already too high but the Government is setting a target that could possibly lead to a 29% increase in house prices in Cork. The Government's plan runs the risk of making homes that are not affordable so ridiculously out of reach that home ownership will become a thing of the past for the vast majority of ordinary people. Instead, young people and families are forced to choose between living with their parents or paying huge high rents to vulture funds. These cannot be the choices that we are giving young families and people.

There is so much more I want to say but I just want to remind the Minister and the other Government Ministers and Deputies that it was Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael housing policies over the last 20 years that have put us where we are now. I do not believe this Affordable Housing Bill will deliver everything the Minister says it will.

I wish it could, I sincerely do, but I do not think the Minister understands the reality of the situation.

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