Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

House prices are out of control and have been for some time now. The price of homes keeps going up while the available income for many families keeps going down due to inflation. Large numbers of people are being locked out of home ownership and the efforts of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to address this have been woeful. On a daily basis my constituency office in Limerick receives calls of desperation from people who have been locked out of home ownership. These are people who struggle to save a deposit. They are not fortunate enough to avail of a cash injection from their parents. They are trying to buy their own home and the lack of support from the Government for them is galling. Is it any wonder that average-income families or new couples struggle to get into the housing market? In Limerick the average price of a house purchase has risen by 8.2% year-on-year. For young families, a three-bedroom semi-detached house in Limerick will cost on average 10.3% more than it did this time last year, with the average price of such units starting at €212,000. In some of the most sought-after suburbs, the price of a three-bedroom terraced house is almost a quarter of a million euro. Average-income families are caught between a rock and a hard place. On one hand they are locked out of purchasing their own home while on the other they earn too much to avail of council-supplied housing or support through the HAP scheme. Social housing income thresholds have not been changed since 2011. This is something that should be rectified. The income cut-off levels need to be increased to reflect inflation.

All the while, house prices go up. According to daft.iewe now have seven consecutive quarters of house prices increasing. Coupled with that we see the number of new homes available at its lowest level since January 2017. Prices are going up while supply is decreasing. This is happening on the watch of the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien. It is happening because Government policy such as help to buy and shared equity inflate house prices. This should come as no shock to anybody. It has been forewarned that this would be the outcome. It is recognised that there is a lack of local authority affordable housing yet the Minister seems to pick his delivery targets out of thin air. Using Limerick as an example, the local authority affordable housing delivery targets for 2022 to 2026 stand at 264 units or 52 per year.

There are more than 2,200 people on the housing list in Limerick, with a further 344 awaiting a transfer. The Minister's unambitious targets will have next to no impact on these housing figures. People are now desperate across Limerick. Generations of families are living in the same homes because the rent is too high and the purchasing of a social house is out of reach. The Minister, therefore, has to step up to the plate with solutions. We need to revise the affordable purchase home targets because they are insufficient. Local authorities must be allowed to access an affordable housing fund. Income thresholds for social housing support must be dramatically increased, and the failed shared equity loan and help-to-buy schemes need to be dumped.

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