Dáil debates

Thursday, 8 July 2021

Affordable Housing Bill 2021 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages

 

2:20 pm

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

I support these amendments as well. The role of community-led trusts needs to be supported and if it is not fully incorporated into the Bill, we need to do that. Not only are they to be found in other parts of Europe, they are in Scotland as well. In recent years, the Scottish Land Commission has done significant work on this. It has a good alternative role in providing housing which is affordable if it is community-led. There are also benefits in design and getting community input and buy-in, not just in the immediate delivery of homes, but in building communities in the long term. It is a model that needs to be fully supported and I strongly support the amendments.

I want to respond to one point the Minister made on cost rental and the Vienna model. We need to be clear about that model and profit limited companies. Those companies are akin to our not-for-profits. They are similar, but there is a key difference. They are much more tightly regulated in how they can spend any returns they get on cost rentals, than not-for profits or AHBs here. This is not just in terms of cost rental but other housings are highly regulated, with a complex set of rules, regulations and laws about how they can invest their money and returns.

The returns they generate are after the build cost is paid back. At that point, the vast majority of their returns have to be reinvested in housing, land or renovation. That is very different from the potential of a private investor or investment fund here, which are provided for under the legislation, whose profits potentially go to shareholders. That is the concern I have. What the Bill provides for is quite different from the Vienna model as it allows for private profit returns on cost rental to be extracted, whereas under the Vienna model any returns after the build costs have been paid off are recycled into the system. That is a huge difference.

It is massively regrettable that time has not been allocated to discuss these issues and tease them out. This needs to be done fast but that could have been done last week or this week.

I am sure the members of the Oireachtas housing committee would have fully co-operated with that. If one looks at the National Economic and Social Council, NESC, study done of Vienna, for example, it cites potential rents of approximately €500 per month for apartments as a result of the subsidies they received. The Minister is correct about Balbriggan being a model. My concern is that this Bill allows for a departure from that not-for-profit model.

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