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

If this were comprehensive legislation, we would know, for example, what would be the eligibility criteria for accessing affordable purchase or cost rental schemes. If it were comprehensive legislation, we would know the cost or the way in which the cost of those homes would be provided.

Nobody is asking the Minister to delay anything. In fact, this legislation has been three years in gestation over two Governments. Many of us, including myself throughout the last Oireachtas, tried to get this legislation introduced much earlier. The problem is that the Minister is asking us to support a Bill without us knowing the full facts. Again, I go back to the central point of the Oireachtas joint committee. We asked for the regulations, even the draft regulations, to be published in parallel with the Bill so the debate could be properly informed. There are real consequences to this. The serviced sites fund today is being used in different ways. It is being used, for example, by Ó Cualann Cohousing in Dublin city, and in the Minister's constituency, as well as in Cork, to deliver homes at genuinely affordable prices. We have all welcomed that and call for more. The fund is also being used in O'Devaney Gardens to deliver so-called "affordable" homes that will cost up to €310,000. That is before the €50,000 shared equity portion with the local authority, which must be repaid back. That is not affordable.

It is not unreasonable for Members of this Dáil, on the Government or the Opposition side, to simply ask the Government to let us know exactly how this Bill will operate. For the life of me I cannot understand why the draft regulations were not published with the Bill. Perhaps the Minister will explain. Were they finished? When does he expect them to be published? It is not the case that the regulations will be published before homes are occupied, because homes that are being funded under the schemes outlined in this Bill are already occupied. I assume that the small number of cost-rental homes announced yesterday by Clúid Housing will be occupied within a matter of weeks. Maybe the Minister will give us an update on the regulations. Maybe he can share with the Members of the Opposition some of the content of the regulations with regard to income limit eligibility, centre of interest criteria, price and price calculations, and when they will be published.

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