Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The extent of the Minister's affordable housing plans in Longford-Westmeath has been laid bare. They are soul-destroying for anybody who needs a local authority-delivered home. Yesterday was the first time I have ever seen a reply to a parliamentary question discussed in such detail in a local shop, and the commentary was absolutely damning. Not one affordable home for Longford was included in that response to Deputy Ó Broin - zero. Last September, I read into the record the local media coverage of affordable housing when the director of services "expressed his fears as written correspondence received by his department returned not very encouraging insights as to where Longford fits into the Government's plan". It is now crystal clear where Longford fits; it is in black and white. It fits nowhere for local authority-delivered affordable homes. What has been done to right this inherent wrong? Has the Minister received the housing needs and demand analysis from Longford County Council, as discussed recently in the housing committee? What engagement has there been to ensure that County Longford is not excluded? What was the true purpose of that much-lauded backbencher letter to the Minister's Department?

From 2022 to 2026, the so-called affordable housing target to be delivered by the local authority for Westmeath is 76, an average of 15 houses annually. I have had more constituents with notices to quit in a day in my Westmeath offices. What my constituents in Longford-Westmeath need is a dramatic increase in direct capital investment in local authority, genuinely affordable homes to buy. The CSO price index shows an 11% increase in Longford and a 9.2% increase in Westmeath in the median price of a home. Despite the Minister's rhetoric about believing in homeownership, rhetoric does not build properties. Investment does, and investment in local authorities will meet the need for affordable housing.

We appear to have ever-changing and contradictory interpretations of what the word "lease" means from the Government. After all, the Taoiseach told us that leasing the national maternity hospital is the equivalent of owning.

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