Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The sum of €450 million is the incredibly large amount of money the Minister will hand over to developers. I can think of many better ways to spend it as I am sure can everyone in the Chamber. People are living with the incredibly difficult situation of rising inflation and the rising cost of fuel. We also have the constant backdrop of the housing crisis. This is the reality people face.As I imagine everyone in the Chamber has, I have constituents frequently contacting my office about fears of becoming homeless when their landlords decide to sell up. Some have had to move to completely different parts of the country, away from family and friends and their support networks, schools and communities. Many residents in Wicklow face the likely reality of never being able to own a home due to rising rents and house prices.

The high cost of housing is having a detrimental impact on our local communities. According to the CSO, house prices have increased by 15% in the past year and will soon surpass their Celtic tiger peak. Rents have doubled in the past decade and Ireland has some of the highest rents and house prices in the European Union. The number of people who have become homeless has increased by 22% in the past year. A report published in April by the Irish Independentrevealed that in Wicklow the average cost of renting a property is €1,635 while the monthly mortgage payment of a home is approximately €1,320. This means that over the lifetime of a 30-year mortgage people renting in Wicklow will pay €111,000 more. This is a huge concern for those renting in Wicklow who simply cannot save the money for a deposit as they continue to pay high rents. There is one property for rent in Bray at present. This is absolutely incredible. This is clearly an unsustainable situation for people renting.

It is also increasingly clear that ordinary workers and families are being priced out of the housing market and are trapped paying exorbitant rents. They are being priced out of their communities. Even the dribble of supply coming on to the market is priced out of the reach of most ordinary workers. Yesterday two families contacted me who are both in very similar situations. Both families have young children, have only ever lived in Greystones and are renting. They have both received notices to quit from their landlords. They are doing absolutely everything right. They have contacted Threshold, the RTB and Wicklow County Council. They have been on to all of the agents. They cannot find anywhere to rent in their home town. Now they face the prospect of having to pull their children out of their schools and move to a different county. The stress being placed on families at present is incredible. The irony is that in north Wicklow thousands of houses are being built. There are strategic housing developments and large developments as far as the eye can see. None of them are affordable. Not a single one in the area is affordable. It is also ironic that the biggest opposition to strategic housing development is coming from Fine Gael public representatives. It is incredible that a party that brought this policy in is now complaining when it is in its own backyard.

It is clear the Minister's housing policies are failing. I recognise it is not just Fianna Fáil's failure in this area. It is also a failure of Fine Gael and the Labour Party. The reason the Minister's policies are failing is that he continues to prioritise the wrong people. He continues to prioritise developers. I do not know whether this is an ideology of the Minister's or whether he has a fundamental lack of confidence in the ability of his own Government and the State to deliver housing rather than relying on the private sector to be the solution to its failures. It is not working. It is clear in every community throughout the country that it is not working. The Minister has continued to fail. Instead of acting in the interests of ordinary people who are suffering the consequences of his housing policies he is reaching across and lending a hand to developers with a €450 million gift.

It is clear this is a record of failure. It is time for the record to change and for the Government to stand up for the interests of people and their housing needs. These are people we know and love. These are people who live in our communities. It is time for the Minister to do the right thing and look at who he prioritises and who will benefit from his housing policies because it is not our communities.

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