Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I want to talk about building communities. The average tenancy now lasts approximately two years. How are people expected to put down roots and how are we expected to build communities when people are moved on again and again by landlords, with short notices, in an attempt to maximise profit? A recent report by Deloitte showed that apartment development in Cork city is profitable only if rents are 21% above the market rate, that is, €2,800 for a two-bedroom apartment. The Government policy of build-to-rent is proving disastrous in Dublin, with 80% vacancy at Clancy Quay and 50% vacancy at Capital Dock. I fear we will see this now in Cork, including in my community of Blackpool.

There, developers want to build apartments to rent at Hewitt’s Mill, on a site opposite the Revenue Commissioners offices, and at Popes Hill, combining 191 apartments with just 19 social houses. Cork City Council's development plan stipulates a minimum social housing provision of 14%, but this is just 10%. Furthermore, the planning application provides for zero provision of new childcare facilities on the spurious grounds they will not be needed for inhabitants of one- and two-bedroom apartments. In fact, this will add to a brewing childcare crisis in Blackpool and the northside of Cork city more generally, with 400 apartments planned within a ten-minute walk of the proposed sites and the Múin preschool facing closure to make way for another build-to-rent development. To add insult to injury, these apartments are to be fast-tracked through the undemocratic strategic housing development planning process, with power concentrated in the hands of An Bord Pleanála and little or no say for the local community.

We need a real community say over housing developments in Blackpool and communities throughout the country. That would be bad news for expensive apartments and profiteering developers. It would mean more notice for renters, more genuinely affordable housing, more social housing, more childcare facilities, protection of heritage and prioritisation, not destruction, of community. We need housing for people, not profit, and I am confident the community in Blackpool and communities throughout the country will stand up for what is right on these issues.

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