Dáil debates

Wednesday, 29 September 2021

Housing for All: Statements (Resumed)

 

4:17 pm

Photo of Peter BurkePeter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As I begin my response, it is incredible to note that the Sinn Féin Party has 37 Deputies and not one of them has been here for almost an hour as we respond to one of the biggest challenges in our State. That is very noticeable in the context of all the ideas we have from the various political parties and Independents. It could not send one Deputy into this House to listen to the debate.

Housing for All has huge ambition: 300,000 houses - 300,000 homes - right up to 2030. The Government of which I have been a part since 2016 increased the number of social homes tenfold right up to 2019. This plan aims to double that output again, 48% of which will be social and affordable homes.

I was privileged in 2009 to be elected to Westmeath County Council, where I started my political career, at a time when our economy, our country and our society was gripped by a huge recession in which society was torn apart. It was a very difficult time for all and a financial crisis. Our country was spending 50% more than it was taking in in income. Ghost estates were everywhere, all over our towns and villages, 3,000 with remedial schemes being brought up to try to resolve them. Two thirds of our construction workers had left the country. We were borrowing from the lenders of last resort. My county, Westmeath, along with Dublin city, piloted the mortgage-to-rent scheme, and that showed just how difficult a space we were in.

Yet, over that period, we have increased the housing budget by 400% to €3.3 billion this year. This builds on existing measures my party supported such as the Rebuilding Ireland home loan; the help-to-buy scheme, which gave ownership to more than 20,000 families in this State; the LDA legislation, which gave birth to an agency that will deliver mixed tenures that will assist all of society throughout our State; the affordable housing fund, which has come from the serviced sites fund; and the repair and lease programme, on which we have seen huge work done in counties such as Waterford that so many other local authorities can work with and learn from.

The ask was very clear. The ESRI said we could increase our deficit by €2 billion to €3 billion up to €7 billion to deliver 33,000 units per annum into our society. We have met that call as a Government: €4 billion in multi-annual funding, €2.4 billion per annum through our national development plan, €1.6 billion through the Housing Finance Agency, and €700 million through the LDA. That is €4 billion in multi-annual funding which gives certainty to the industry. The Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science is bringing 10,000 apprenticeships into our economy each year, committing to the skill set that is so badly needed to build all the houses we require.

As for our water and wastewater infrastructure, which many Deputies raised, I point to the €4 billion right out to 2025 to unlock that infrastructure through Irish Water and our urban regeneration funding. As for the potential we are looking at for our country and families who call into our clinics week in and week out in such vulnerable situations, I point to 10,000 social homes on average per annum, 4,000 affordable, 2,000 cost rental and 17,000 from the private sector. That is 33,000 homes to fill that latent demand and the current demand that is so acute. Schemes such as the affordable house purchase fund will give families who may not make it onto the social housing list a chance to get access to own their own homes. We are targeting it through the 31 local authorities. They have to give their plans by the end of the year through the housing needs and demands assessment, which will be targeted and will tell us the type of tenure we need and the places we need it. We need that up-to-date information we have not had before.

We have 213 actions driven by the Department of the Taoiseach. I also lead the Towns First programme, which was referred to by many Deputies in the debate and in respect of which we expect to have proposals for Cabinet in November. It is a matter of trying to unlock the potential of our towns and villages throughout this country to give them the opportunity to bring in more footfall and ensure there are more residential mixes to breathe life back into them.

As for renters, we have extended the rent pressure zones, RPZs. right out to ensure rent increases are limited. We have put in five separate pieces of legislation to enhance tenancy rights in the Thirty-third Dáil. Those will strengthen protections for those who are renting.

Many referred to rural housing. I would say to Deputy O'Donoghue that the rules have not changed. Many Deputies come in here and say the rules have changed. They absolutely have not. What we need is a sustainable approach to rural housing. We need to acknowledge and understand the demand in our localities and in our society and give people the opportunity to live in their home areas. I am fully committed to updating the 2005 sustainable rural housing guidelines and I will bring in the political system as part of that because we all need to have a voice, unlike Sinn Féin, whose members will not attend this debate.

As for our infrastructure, it is so important we unlock the gaps that are there because there are many. As I travel around the country to the 31 local authorities, I see areas that are zoned and have the potential but the infrastructure is not there.

I do not like saying this when Sinn Féin does not have a representative at this debate, but I have listened to many Deputies saying "if only we had been in government". That is what I heard from Sinn Féin. Their members say "if only Deputy Ó Broin had been the housing Minister". I take out its 2016 general election manifesto and read on page 45, "We will commit ... €2.2 billion ... in capital spending ... [between 2016 and 2021] ... to ... [deliver] 36,500 ... [units]."

That is what the party wanted to deliver if it got into power. However, the previous Government - a year early, up to 2020 - delivered 39,000 homes. It was a Government in which I, as a backbencher, played my role in voting for the measures it introduced. It delivered a lot more than Sinn Féin said it would deliver in its 2016 manifesto.

There is a second point I want to make about what is contained in that document. The first paragraph on page 45 states, "We will ensure that all housing construction delivered by the State is designed in mixed tenure developments..." If we look, however, at the Oscar Traynor Road development, a mixed-tenure project comprising 854 houses, we see that Sinn Féin did not support it. The party also refused to back proposals for 1,200 houses in Ballymastone in Donabate, citing the mantra of "only public housing on public land". However, a proposal for 18 public houses on public land at Kilbride Bridge in Wicklow was likewise voted down by Sinn Féin. Deputies from that party have spoken here today about reading emails from vulnerable constituents, almost as though they have a monopoly on compassion and we do not understand what it is. Yet, when we scrutinise the decisions of party members in local authorities up and down the country, we see one common thread in Sinn Féin's policy, which is to oppose, oppose, oppose.

We on this side of the House are trying to make a difference. We are moving might and main right across every strand of government. This plan will be driven by the Department of the Taoiseach to ensure we can meet the demand for the housing provision that is so badly needed by our society. Many measures have been talked about in this House, including, as referred to by Deputy Griffin, the help-to-buy scheme, in respect of which we can do much more to unlock development potential and give families the chance of home ownership. I fully agree that such efforts must be supported. I do not like calling out people, but it must be done when I hear voices condemning us for doing our very best.

In regard to mixed-tenure provision, which will be key to delivery under the Land Development Agency, I want to emphasise that we must offer people sustainable options. Where we can support them to achieve home ownership, the Government commits to do so. In the case of cost-rental accommodation, it can offer people long-term, sustainable and secure tenancies that guarantee them a family home at 25% to 30% below the market rental price. It is also about reforming our planning code, which is very important. Many Deputies referenced the strategic housing development process and how we are bringing control back into local authorities and ensuring more decisions are made locally. That is also very important.

I thank all the Deputies who have drawn our attention to many valuable points. I thank everyone who attended the debate and listened to what was said. I assure them that I listened to the points they made. The Government will do its very best to ensure every person in the State has access to a secure tenancy. I know from my clinics every week, as do my party colleagues and colleagues in government in respect of their constituencies, that there are vulnerable people who need help. We are working really hard to get solutions for them.

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