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

I acknowledge Deputy Ó Broin for tabling the motion. It has been reported that a row between Dublin City Council and the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government in 2019 scuppered plans to purchase lands at Poolbeg for affordable housing. Documents released under freedom of information to the Business Postshowed the deal fell apart after the council and the Department disagreed over who should pay to purchase part of the former Irish Glass Bottle site. As a result of this row, Dublin City Council believes the failure to purchase land will make the delivery of affordable homes on the site problematic.

The inability to purchase new homes is nothing new for residents 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 the Ringsend and Pearse Street area and throughout south Dublin. As they have moved in, the price of buying and renting even modest homes has gone through the roof. Even if so-called affordable apartments are built, the reality is they will not be affordable to ordinary working families. Prices of €450,000, €500,000 and €600,000 are not affordable and this is what the affordable homes will cost.

Of course, the Government's decision to allow vulture funds to buy up apartments will make ownership for ordinary working people a distant memory. They may be affordable to the high-paid executives working in the tech companies but not to young working families. They will have to continue to live with their parents or pay huge rents that prevent them from saving for a home. Capital Dock, which throws a shadow over Ringsend and Pearse Street, has massive rents and is of no benefit to the ordinary working people living in its shadow. No public housing was delivered in the Ringsend and Pearse Street area as a result of the Capital Dock development. Many of the apartments are empty in an effort to keep rents high and manipulate the market.

In June of last year on Newstalk, the Minister said he would look at house prices in the region of €160,000 to €250,000 on a shared equity basis. Now it seems the affordable homes, if delivered in Ringsend, Harold's Cross or anywhere in Dublin Bay South, will be €450,000, which cannot possibly be classed as affordable. How can ordinary workers ever hope to buy a house in the community in which they went to school? Recently, I met the Irish Glass Bottle Housing Action Group with my colleagues, Senator Boylan, and Councillor Daniel Céitinn. The action group has campaigned tirelessly for affordable homes on the Irish Glass Bottle site and is extremely concerned there will be no public or affordable housing on the site. It is also concerned that if there is affordable housing it will not be affordable to ordinary working families. Will the Minister state there will be affordable homes on the Irish Glass Bottle site and that they will not cost more than €450,000?

Homes need to be building blocks for stronger communities and not just assets from which to make profits. Fine Gael represents the vulture funds, and it was ably assisted by the Labour Party and Deputy Howlin when he was a Minister in partnership with Fine Gael. Like most Deputies in Dublin Bay South, I am regularly contacted by residents in Ringsend, Sandymount and Pearse Street desperate for secure and decent accommodation. They are not looking to get it for free. One family recently contacted me because their council flat has three teenagers in one bedroom. The girl has the single bunk and shares with her two teenage brothers. Both parents work hard and pay €150 a week for a flat that is barely habitable despite their best efforts to keep it well, which they do given the circumstances. Their children are afraid to leave the flat because of the drug dealing and random violence around their home. They pay €600 a month to Dublin City Council and they feel trapped and worried, not for themselves but for their children.

Yesterday, I met another couple who have one child. They both have jobs with two relatively good incomes. They do not qualify for public housing because of their income. They do not qualify for a mortgage because of their income. They are trapped in uncertain rental and they are weary. As they said, they feel broken. This is what the Government policy is doing. It is breaking people and it is breaking society. The Irish Glass Bottle site should be a real opportunity for people to be housed in decent, safe and secure accommodation. However, this will not happen with the plans the Government has for affordable housing.

On 8 July there will be a by-election, as the Minister knows as he was canvassing yesterday. Residents will have an opportunity to tell the Government they are fed up with its housing policy and they want public homes on public land. They want affordable homes and affordable rental that ordinary people can afford. This needs to be our town and not "Googletown".

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