Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to make some brief comments in the short time available to me. This amending legislation is necessary to remove the sweetheart deal offered to developers and investors by way of the exemption to Part V of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended. It is necessary at a time when the residential property price index figures show an annual average increase of 8.6% in property prices and when people are struggling to gain mortgage approval while paying higher rents. A June 2021 daft.iesales report indicated that Limerick city has seen the largest rise in prices of any city, with an average increase of 15.5%. To have a waiver in place at this time of the requirement for a provision of 20% social and affordable housing is fundamentally wrong and must be stopped. There is no thought in this exemption of what is best for the people. The only thought seems to be of profit.

The Business Postreported last Sunday that the Government has been lobbied extensively by its developer friends. There is no surprise in that for any of us. The long-suffering investors and developers can lobby the Minister of State and his colleagues and be helped by them. The people I speak for are not offered exemption clauses. I would rather speak for the thousands of people in Limerick who are on waiting lists. I speak for those in overcrowded conditions, with three generations of the same family living in the same home. My constituency office, like those of other Deputies, is inundated with queries on housing. Almost every single call we are getting is from people who are in distress about housing. When I leave this debate and switch my telephone back on, I know there will be messages from people. Looking at daft.ietoday, I see there are 13 properties for rent in my city. Four of those properties cost more than €3,000 per month and only two of them, both one-bedroom properties, are renting for less than €1,000. That is ridiculous.

We have a situation where working families cannot get any housing support or be put on a housing list because they earn a little too much, but they earn too little to get a mortgage. That is a massive problem. As I said, there are only 13 houses or apartments available for rent in Limerick city today, but we have ten or even 20 times that number of voids. The Minister of State may stand up and say that X, Y and Z is being done about voids but, in fact, nothing is being done. The red tape is too difficult for councils to get through. That must be dealt with if the Government is serious about tackling the issue. If the Minister of State were dealing with the number of people we have coming through our constituency offices, he would realise the extent of the crisis we are facing in the here and now. As my colleague, Deputy Ward, said, people cannot wait for a number of years. They need action now and solutions that will deliver houses for them. I do not believe the Government is up to the game at all.

See this speech in context