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

I will speak in favour of both amendments in the group. When the Oireachtas housing committee undertook pre-legislative scrutiny of this legislation, one of the recommendations unanimously agreed by all members of the committee, both from the Government and the Opposition, was that the many regulations the Minister will have to produce, both for the affordable purchase and cost rental schemes, should be published in parallel with the legislation. This was so we could have a fully informed debate about the details of those schemes and whether the regulations and criteria the Minister would introduce via those regulations were appropriate. It would also allow us to fully understand the way in which the provisions of the Bill as it stands would be utilised.

It is very disappointing we have not even seen those regulations. To the Minister I say there is enormous frustration among directors of housing in local authorities throughout the State because for three years officials in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and for three years local authorities and councillors from all parties and none have been keen to utilise funding that has already been provided through the serviced sites fund for cost rental and affordable purchase. However, they have been held back. Here we are debating legislation and we do not know the criteria.

These two amendments have great merit and not only should the Minister have published them but the Oireachtas should have had some formal role. That could have been, as these amendments suggest, with the Houses approving the measures or there could have been direct consultation with the Oireachtas housing committee or other body.

The Minister will continue to tell us this is transformative legislation but it is skeletal. Much of the detail of it we will not know until later this year. The bulk of the text of this Bill relates to one of its provisions, which is now to be called the affordable housing loan for affordable purchase led by local authorities. The cost rental section of the Bill is approximately a page and a half. We know virtually nothing about how this scheme will operate other than snippets that have been in the media about the cost rental equity loan pilot today. It is very disappointing.

For those of us who want to be supportive of the Government's efforts, even when we believe those efforts are badly designed and executed, the Minister makes it exceedingly difficult by behaving in this way. Therefore, I am more than happy to support these amendments.

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