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

I move:

That Dáil Éireann: notes that:

— house prices continue to spiral out of control;

— a growing section of people are locked out of home ownership;

— the latest Central Statistics Office Residential Property Price Index shows house prices increased by 15 per cent State-wide in the last year;

— the largest increases were in the border region at 27 per cent;

— the median price of a home across the State was €282,000;

— in Malahide the median price was €497,000;

— the highest median price was in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown at €600,000;

— Government policies, including the Help to Buy (HTB) and the 'First Home' Affordable Purchase Shared Equity schemes, have and will continue to inflate house prices;

— the Government delivered zero affordable purchase homes in 2020 or 2021;

— the Government has provided funding for just 550 affordable purchase homes through its Affordable Housing Fund in 2022;

— the Government's affordable home targets agreed last month with local authorities are not based on objective need; and

— in some schemes, such as O'Devaney Gardens, the full price of so-called affordable homes will be over €400,000; and

calls on the Government to:

— dramatically increase direct capital investment in the delivery by local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies of genuinely affordable homes to purchase;

— urgently revise the affordable purchase home targets agreed with local authorities to deliver on average at least 4,000 affordable purchase homes a year from 2022 to 2026;

— allow all local authorities to access the Affordable Housing Fund;

— scrap the HTB scheme and the 'First Home' Affordable Purchase Shared Equity scheme which push up prices, and divert the funding into the delivery of genuinely affordable homes; and

— ensure that all affordable purchase homes are sold at prices that working people can afford.

What has Fianna Fáil got against homeownership? Every time that party has been in government in recent times, house prices have risen and homeownership has fallen dramatically. On the previous occasion the Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin, was in Cabinet, at the tail end of that period, when the current Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, was a new backbencher, not only did house prices rise to their highest point in the history of the State, but homeownership fell at a more dramatic pace than ever before or since. Now Fianna Fáil is back in government and in charge of housing and we are back to the bad old days.

According to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office, CSO, in a month or two we will hit and pass the Celtic tiger peak for house prices. Again, thanks to Fianna Fáil, homeownership is a distant reality for far too many people. The reason for that, of course, is the policies the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, has introduced. I will consider some of them before I speak to the motion.

One of his first acts as Minister with responsibility for housing was to expand the highly controversial so-called help-to-buy scheme. Some 60% of the people who benefited from that scheme did not need it. They had deposits and mortgages, according to an independent Oireachtas report, and large numbers of organisations and independent economists stated that the scheme would push up house prices Next we had the shared equity loan scheme. It has been mired in controversy for almost two years now because of strong opposition from the National Economic and Social Council, NESC, the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, and the Central Bank. Even the International Monetary Fund, IMF, last week criticised the potential risk of the scheme. What will it do? It will again push up house prices.

Not being satisfied with all of that, the Minister today introduced what has to be the craziest housing scheme I have heard from any Government in recent years. He is going to give large private developers subsidies of up to €120,000 in Dublin and up to €144,000 outside Dublin, with no reduction in price for the purchaser and no affordability dividend. It is a chronic waste of taxpayers' money. At best, it will lock in unaffordable excessive prices for apartments or, at worst, drive them even further upwards.

These are the reasons the latest CSO figures show house prices rising by 15% across the State and by 27% in Border areas. The median house price across the State is €282,000 but in the Minister's constituency the median price for a new house is almost €500,000. That is what you get when Fianna Fáil is in government.

I am sure the Minister will claim that his affordable housing fund, funding for local authorities to deliver genuinely affordable homes, is another measure to tackle the problems Sinn Féin is raising tonight. However, as the figures he gave me in response to a parliamentary question last week, which we published this week, show, that stands in stark contrast to the hundreds of millions Fianna Fáil gives to large developers. On average, we will get 1,500 units a year through that fund, although it will be two or three years before we get there. The annual targets for affordable purchase homes through the scheme are appallingly low, with only 400 such homes in Dublin city, fewer than 200 in the Minister's constituency, 30 to 45 a year in the commuter belt and as few as 15 in some cities. Is it any wonder that people cannot put an affordable roof over their heads?

There is a better way, however. The motion tabled by Sinn Féin, building on the costed alternative proposals in our alternative budget, shows how it can be done. The Government needs to stop giving huge gifts to large developers and speculators and invest all of that money in the direct delivery of large volumes of genuinely affordable homes to purchase through local authorities, approved housing bodies, co-operatives such as Ó Cualann and community housing trusts.

We estimate that at least 4,000 genuinely affordable purchase homes, built on public land, are needed each year. As the Minister knows, our innovative leasehold proposal would ensure not only that the homes are genuinely affordable but that, in addition, we would build up, year on year, a growing number of privately owned and privately tradeable but permanently affordable homes, not just for the first purchaser but for every purchaser into the future.

We also think the Minister should scrap all the crazy schemes that he claims assist people in buying homes, when, in fact, there are no entry level criteria, people get access to public money who do not need it and this drives up the price of public housing. All of that money could be used to deliver the 4,000 genuinely affordable homes a year for which we are calling.

Every single local authority should be able to apply for the scheme. The affordability test through the housing needs demand assessment was badly designed and the Minister has made some concessions in that regard. The key point is that the one thing the Government can control is the amount of its investment on State land to develop genuinely affordable homes. The Government is not doing that and it is not in the Minister's plan. Until he reverses that, the affordable housing crisis is going to get worse. On that basis, I commend the motion to the House.

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