Dáil debates

Tuesday, 21 September 2021

Planning and Development (Amendment) (20 per cent Provision of Social and Affordable Housing) Bill 2021: Second Stage [Private Members]

 

7:25 pm

Photo of Chris AndrewsChris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend my colleague, Deputy Ó Broin, on bringing forward the Bill. The purpose of the Bill is simple, but its impact will have far-reaching benefits for thousands of workers amid the housing crisis. The Bill will remove the Part V affordable housing exemption for developers who purchased land in the past five years and who seek planning permission before the end of July 2026.

This exemption represents yet another sweetheart deal by this Government for developers and investors. We have seen concession after concession for developers and investors while we have workers and their families being forced to pay very high rents and move far from their families and communities to find accommodation. When will we start to see meaningful breaks for ordinary working families?

We are fortunate in Dublin Bay South to have many strong communities who believe in standing up for one another and their communities. I look at the Irish Glass Bottle Housing Action Group in particular. It has been a constant source of community in organising for the delivery of affordable homes for Ringsend and Irishtown. For too long, locals have been getting priced out of their community, with investors swooping in to buy up whatever homes are available. To add to this, we have high-tech firms coming in and pushing up the prices of homes and rentals for working families who lived and invested in the area long before the shiny, hugely profitable companies like Facebook, Google and now TikTok. We urgently need affordable public housing in this city and when we say affordable, we mean affordable to the community, not to the investment funds. An affordable price of upwards of €600,000 per unit is laughable. We need the delivery of affordable homes at the price of €250,000, like Ó Cualann, as the previous Deputy mentioned. In terms of public housing, we need to see a commitment from the Government that these units remain onsite within the community, not relocated far outside the original area. We cannot let what happened with the development of Capital Dock happen again, given the Part V units were not provided onsite or even locally, but instead miles up the road from the local community. Public housing needs to be delivered locally.

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