Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

One of the reasons it is so important to get that extra 15% is because house prices in this part of the city have increased more dramatically than in many other places, as the Minister is aware. There are families who have lived in that part of the city for three or four generations and whose children simply cannot afford to rent or buy there, and who do not have any prospect of renting or buying in or close to the communities in which they live, work, play and socialise. The delivery of these homes, therefore, is absolutely paramount.

Dublin City Council, in order to try to ensure the affordability of the homes in question, approached the National Asset Management Agency, NAMA, in 2019 with a view to acquiring the portion of the SDZ known as the Irish Glass Bottle site. Unusually, NAMA agreed to sell that site to Dublin City Council at a discount. Despite valiant efforts by Dublin City Council, ably assisted by the National Development Finance Agency, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage refused to provide the finance for the council to proceed with the purchase. I understand, from good sources, that a last-minute intervention by a member of the NAMA board to the then Minister, Eoghan Murphy, who was also a Deputy representing the constituency, did not unblock the logjam, and Dublin City Council was unable to purchase the site.

The site was then rolled into the overall Poolbeg lands and put on the open market. As we know from media reports, the Ronan Group Real Estate bought the site, reputedly for a significant amount above the guide price. It beggars belief that any Minister would refuse to support the financing of such a key and strategic site, which would have been central to lowering the delivery costs and affordability of those units. I simply cannot understand that decision. The challenge is, however, that this is where we are today. Responsibility falls on this Government, with constructive opposition from this side of the House, to try to identify how best we can fix the problem we face.

It is very clear that everybody wants the affordable housing. I do not believe that any Member who will speak in this debate tonight does not want those 500 to 600-plus homes not delivered affordably. There is a difficulty however. Mr. Brendan Kenny, the director of housing with Dublin City Council, made public comments only a couple of weeks ago on his genuine concerns that the nature of the development as planned by Lioncor - the vehicle leading out the development for Ronan Group Real Estate - would be so expensive that even with the standard serviced sites fund, or even with the higher serviced sites fund the Minister is moving towards approving, one would not get those units at anything close to an affordable price for people on good incomes, let alone for those on modest incomes.

How can we fix this particular problem? The first thing is that NAMA continues to control a 20% interest in the land. There is an option here for the Government to seriously consider, which would be to see the landholding transfer from NAMA to Dublin City Council. Some people suggest that this should be done by way of a gift, but I am not sure if that is possible under the NAMA Act. It certainly would be possible for that land to be transferred by way of an advance on the ultimate dividend that NAMA would pass to the State when it concludes its work. We know this dividend is considerable.

The second issue is the very considerable infrastructural funding from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, through the local infrastructure housing activation fund, LIHAF, and the urban regeneration development fund, URDF, and the Department of Transport going into the overall SDZ. There will be somewhere in the region of €80 million, depending on how the ERDF funding is allocated, €50 million in LIHAF funding for the bridge will be matched by €15 million from the Department of Transport and the National Transport Authority, NTA, there will be between €12 million and €20 million for the Seán Moore Road and the roundabout there and whatever is allocated in the eventual serviced sites fund, which could be anything from €30 million to €60 million, depending on what eventually happens. That gives Dublin City Council and the Government very strong bargaining leverage. Nobody wants to delay this development. We want to see all of this happen quickly. In order for the Ronan group to make a reasonable offer for the purchase of those affordable units, fully discounted to the €80 million-plus, and preferably with the land values extracted completely following a transfer from NAMA to Dublin City Council, it would transform the ability of Dublin City Council to deliver affordable homes on that site.

I am aware that, clearly, the Minister cannot say "Yes" to any of that here today. That is not what we are asking. We are saying that we need central government to become more directly involved in working with Dublin City Council and the local community to put all of those levers on the table, and to come up with a plan to ensure that homes on that site can be purchased, just as homes in the Minister's constituency would be purchased, for example at prices of €250,000, with the serviced sites fund - or the affordable housing fund I believe it is now called - equity portion to be repaid to the local authority at a later stage.

We also need to be careful that the shared equity portion is not too big or too onerous on the homeowner, and therefore the maximum level of discount on the purchase price and the lowest level of shared equity repayable is where we need to go.

We tabled this motion in the spirit of being constructive. We tabled it because we believe that the ideas we propose would have widespread support in Ringsend, Irishtown and the surrounding area, and would also have widespread support among Dublin City councillors of all parties and none, and officials who would lead this project. My strong appeal to the Minister is this: I do not believe that his predecessor was particularly active in this dilemma, and this is why we have ended up in a situation where NAMA offered to sell land at a discount of up to 60% of the market value but was unable to do so because the Department and then Minister, Eoghan Murphy, refused to fund it. I urge the Government now to roll up its sleeves with the Minister, the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, working jointly and directly with Dublin City Council. I understand that the Irish Glass Bottle Housing Action Group has approached the Ministers for Housing, Local Government and Heritage and Transport.

I would like to see this meeting happen as urgently as possible. I know that last night the Minister gave some commitments to the residents on a timeline for this. He can confirm this for us shortly. Let us work together on this. Let us ensure that on this site we have the maximum number of social and, crucially, affordable homes at prices working people can afford. If we all row in behind the community and the Irish Glass Bottle Housing Action Group we can produce a result that is in the interests of the community and the city. It is a result we all want to see.

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