Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Ó Broin for bringing this motion and it is positive the Minister is not opposing it. That is welcome. Unfortunately, the failure to acquire the Irish Glass Bottle site is a scandal and an example of a massive missed opportunity to ensure all the homes which would be built would be genuinely affordable or social and it is short-sighted. Reading through some of the correspondence from the Freedom of Information Act, FOI, which was reported on earlier this year, the Secretary General of the Department of housing at the time wrote we have a duty to ensure we are party to an agreement designed to deliver affordable housing and that we are clear the agreement can deliver that. The Secretary General went on to say the Department is being asked to provide very significant capital funding to buy a site with no clear pathway, thereafter, to the delivery of affordable housing.

I quote that correspondence because I do not believe this is an issue about officials and what they were doing. They were trying to do their jobs. The scandal here is a political scandal, that they did not know, if the site was bought, how the capital funding to deliver affordable homes would be secured for that. That is a failure of politics.

It is an absolute failure that what is happening now in the debate on housing and on what needs to happen in Ireland is that some of the strongest arguments being made, and arguments have been made in this House, on how we are going to finance it are being left to people such as those in the ESRI. They have to clearly say to the Government, repeatedly: "This is how you finance housing, this is how it can be done, this is how it is prudent to do it and, when you look at what Ireland can borrow and its economic growth, this is what can be achieved". We should not be in that situation. We should not be in a situation where that site was not acquired. It should have been acquired. It should be obvious to anyone who is passionate about this how the Government and the State could be availing of sufficient capital funding to acquire these types of sites to deliver affordable housing.

The Oscar Traynor Road site is related to this. A plan has been agreed by councillors on Dublin City Council to deliver affordable and social homes there. They are disappointed with the delays in the Department and by the Minister with regard to their wishes to advance that. They are disappointed at the lack of urgency. They want to advance it as quickly as possible and the ball is very much in the court of the Department and the Government to respond to that as fast as possible.

We have the resources in this country and we certainly have the know-how and technical expertise for affordable housing. There is no question about that. However, I question if there is the know-how and expertise at government level when it comes to affordable housing. Yesterday, on national radio, Professor John FitzGerald, speaking about the Government's Affordable Housing Bill and the shared equity scheme, in particular, said that it is a very bad idea for Ireland. He cited it as an example of politicians doing stupid things. He pointed out that property owners and landowners would benefit from it, not potential buyers. He was unequivocal about this. We know that a similar scheme in the UK led to a boom in profits for large developers.

The Central Bank, the ESRI, officials in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform have all issued warnings on this. Indeed, a senior official wrote that the property industry wants an equity scheme because it will increase prices. Despite all this, there does not appear to be the know-how at government level to listen to expert advice when it comes to housing. The expert advice on this is incredibly clear as to what it will do, yet there does not appear to be the ability at senior political level in the Government to listen to that expert advice, take it on board and scrap a scheme that everybody knows will inflate house prices. The people lobbying for that scheme started lobbying for it at a time when we did not have the house price inflation that we currently have. In fact, the people lobbying for that scheme are the same people who lobbied for the strategic housing development legislation and told the Government at the time that it would lead to more housing delivery and a faster planning process. What has happened is a complete and utter shambles - a lack of delivery because of judicial reviews and everything else. That could have been pointed out by anybody familiar with the planning system. We must stand up to the corrosive influence of lobbyists on housing, and particularly stand up against what everyone knows will affect housing affordability. It is fine to talk about housing affordability, but to continue to advance a scheme that everyone knows will increase house prices further makes no sense.

The method of delivery in the Poolbeg site and similar sites is very important for achieving affordability. There is no question about that. We will not achieve the level of affordability that is necessary for people on average incomes if we continue to rely on private sector delivery. We need only look at the details of proposals submitted by developers under Part V in any of the developments they are advancing to see how they are more expensive than other methods of delivery by not-for-profit or local authority led delivery. That is because they are paying higher finance costs. We know from schemes such as the Ó Cualann Cohousing Alliance scheme in Dun Emer, Lusk, in the Minister's constituency, and there are density reasons for it as well which we must acknowledge, that delivery at much more affordable prices can be done and is done, with prices from €166,000 to €258,000 in Dun Emer, yet we hear reports of potential prices for affordable homes in Poolbeg at as much as €600,000. Who delivers matters, if we are going to address this properly.

In conclusion, there have been clear warnings in the last few weeks from the Central Bank, for example, about significant house price growth in the near to medium term. The Irish housing market report from the Bank of America has warned about rising construction costs and how this will hinder the supply of new homes here and fuel a further increase in house prices. The real estate firm, JLL Ireland, has predicted potential price increases of 7% in Dublin this year. There have been warnings from various housing experts, including Lorcan Sirr, Karl Dieter and Jim Power, that house prices could soon hit Celtic tiger levels. Indeed, the report for the Cabinet housing committee has warned against demand side policies and how that could create house price inflation. Despite all those warnings, the Government is advancing a proposal to increase house prices further, and it continues to support the sale of land and failure to acquire land for affordable and social housing, as in this instance. It is time for a different approach on this.

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