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]

 

7:35 pm

Photo of Brian StanleyBrian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill and I commend Deputy Eoin Ó Broin on bringing it forward. The facts are that consecutive Governments have failed to provide affordable homes across the country on the scale that is required to address the housing crisis. There has not been one single affordable home delivered in Laois-Offaly in almost 15 years and there does not appear to be any plan in place for cost rental projects in either county. The Government, just like its predecessors, seems either incapable or unwilling to deliver affordable homes for ordinary hard-working people.

What we have is a sweetheart deal in the Government’s housing plan. The Government's housing plan has a large loophole in it which will allow developers to avoid providing additional accommodation for purchase or rental homes. The Government plan allows developers to avoid selling 20% of the units they build to local authorities for affordable to purchase and rental homes, which is why we have brought forward this legislation. Sinn Féin projects that closing this loophole will ensure an additional 10,000 homes that are genuinely affordable are built between now and the end of 2025.

This is the kind of practical solution we need. We must get to grips with the housing crisis. Since 2013, in Laois house prices have increased by 98% and by 64% in Offaly in the same period. These are astronomical increases which have completely obstructed families and workers from purchasing their own homes. Instead, property developers and landlords are buying them up and renting them out to families at spiralling, sky-rocketing rents. Half of the constituency does not have a rent control zone and the three zoned areas are not effective because of loopholes. I would also argue that if we had rent controls in place years ago, this kind of market manipulation would not be happening. One of the things driving up house prices is the fact we do not have rent controls in this country. It is very profitable for landlords, developers and speculators to buy houses and to rent them out, and they can charge what they like in rent. Rents are out of control. Although I hate to say it, successive Governments have allowed this crisis to develop. We have been saying this here for years while workers and families are trapped in rental accommodation with no affordable or cost rental options in sight.

To conclude, we need affordable to purchase housing schemes and cost rental schemes to be provided in Laois-Offaly and every other county. We need 20% of all developments.

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