Dáil debates

Wednesday, 18 May 2022

Subsidies for Developers: Motion [Private Members]

 

11:52 am

Photo of Cian O'CallaghanCian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputies from different parties and groups who have spoken on the motion. During the debate we witnessed something I had not seen before. The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, who is not shy for words, was utterly silent when we put three questions to him, questions the public have a right to know the answers to given that he wants to gift €450 million of public money to developers. We asked him if developers and their lobbyists were involved in dreaming up this scheme. There was no answer, just complete silence and no response. Why would he not answer that question? We asked why there was no cost-benefit analysis or economic or regulatory assessment of the scheme. There was total silence and no answer.

Why will he not tell us about that? Why will he not carry out that evaluation so we can find out what the scheme will do? Why will he not answer questions about what this will do to land prices? There is no answer; it is utter silence from the Minister. He will not tell us anything he thinks about this.

We asked the Minister what level of profit would be guaranteed to developers under this scheme. Will developers who are seeking 15% minimum profits, which they define as viable for apartment construction, get those profits subsidised through public money? There was zero answer from the Minister to that. He had nothing to say. There was no comment, just total silence. Why will he and the Government not answer the very legitimate questions we are putting about the use of €450 million of public money the Government is going to hand over to developers? I asked the Minister if he could give an example of a single country in the world where a government is behaving in this way by gifting such money to private developers. He had nothing to say. There was utter silence, with no answer or comment on that. Why will he and the Government not answer the legitimate questions we are putting to them when they are seeking to gift €450 million of public money to developers?

I wish to respond to the Minister of State with regard to what the Social Democrats stand for in housing policy. I will be very clear about this. We stand for measures that make housing more affordable and we are opposed to measures that put upward pressure on rents and house prices to make housing and rents less affordable. We oppose all the Government's measures in that regard, including this off-the-wall scheme. This is the same Government that is putting more than €1 billion in subsidies every year into the pockets of investment funds and private landlords through rent subsidies and long-term leases. It is not an accident that we live in a country that has some of the highest rents and house prices compared with those of European Union capital cities. It is no accident because every time the Government intervenes in housing it brings forward measures that create upward pressure on rents and house prices, as it is doing with this scheme.

The Government has no mandate for this. Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party did not tell the electorate during the last general election that they should vote for those parties because they would give €450 million of the electorate's hard-earned money to developers. They did not tell people about that. There was not even a whisper of it during the election campaign. They have no mandate whatsoever for it. Then the Government will not even answer the very legitimate questions we have put about this today. There is zero answer. Why did the Government parties not come clean with the electorate during the last election that this was their plan if that is what they intended to do? I call on Government Deputies to join Opposition Deputies today and to vote down these horrendous plans, to scrap these plans, to put this money and these resources instead into building affordable purchase homes, and to use this funding as it should be used. We should be increasing home ownership, but under this Government home ownership continues to fall year after year, while rents and house prices increase.

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