Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Based on what the Cabinet announced today, unfortunately, not only will half those homes be unaffordable private units but, equally, the 22% of homes that are so-called affordable will also be way beyond the reach of ordinary people. What we want are affordable public homes on public land. In fact, the all-in cost of the affordable purchase in this regard, based on Cabinet information provided today, when the purchase cost and the affordable housing fund repayment is added in, is between €344,000 for one-bed units and €404,000 for three-bed units. That is not affordable housing for working people.

To return to the issue at hand, the difficulty is that if I were a developer with planning permission for 100 apartments in Dublin, I now have a wonderful opportunity because I can go to a local authority for a mixed social-affordable scheme, to an approved housing body for a cost rental equity loan, CREL, scheme and the LDA for a Project Tosaigh scheme. The LDA can, of course, pay more than the local authorities can because it does not have the same departmental cap ceilings. I could also go to the Housing Agency or any of the several funds which exist. Therefore, it is a sellers' market and that is going to push up the price developers will seek for those turnkey units, particularly this year and next year, as well as squeezing out owner-occupiers. Nothing the Minister has said has convinced me that he has a plan to deal with that prospect, if, as I suspect, it happens. I hope it does not but I would like to know that the Minister has a contingency plan to ensure that is the case.

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