Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy O'Callaghan for putting forward the motion. One cannot be too strong in condemning what is an absolutely insane scheme from this Government. It is a demonstration that Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and sadly, the Green Party, have reverted to type. They have returned to the utterly disastrous developer-led policies which led to the crash in 2008 that almost destroyed our economy and inflicted a decade of suffering on working people. The worst legacy of that is the ongoing housing crisis that we now face. The vast majority of working people cannot afford to put a roof over their head. I am sorry that the Minister has gone. It is appropriate that the Minister of State is here, because nowhere is the disastrous failure of the Government's policy more evident than in our constituency of Dún Laoghaire, where average house prices are now over €600,000 and average rents are the highest in the country, at well over €2,200 a month. The vast majority of working people cannot afford to put a roof over their head, and more and more people who are working, paying tax and getting up in the morning are actually being driven into homeless accommodation.

The Government thinks the answer to that level of unaffordability and that crisis is to give €450 million more to private developers to give them a subsidy of up to €144,000 per apartment to deliver two- and three-bedroom housing units that will cost €390,000 and €450,000 respectively. That is what the Government's answer is. Are the Members of the Government off their rockers? I can see why the developers want it. Some €450 million of public money is being given to developers to deliver housing that people will need an income in excess of around €120,000 a year to be able to afford, or the units will be bought by investors - who else could afford them - to rent at rents that nobody can afford.

I do not know if the Minister of State is aware of the scale of individual human misery that is resulting from this insane sort of policy. Of course, this is just the latest and most brazen example of such failed policies. We can add to that the local infrastructure housing activation fund, LIHAF, funding of €200 million that was given to developers for infrastructure and the old Part V affordable housing scheme that the Greens and Fianna Fáil dreamed up, which provided so-called affordable housing. That led huge numbers of people into negative equity and led to them losing their homes after the crash in 2008. The Government is at it again, letting the developers dictate policy.

I ask the Minister of State what this means for people in our area. I will tell him what it means. Those whose income is below €35,000 net are entitled to go on to the social housing list, which is 20 years long in our area. That means that people cannot get a social house. They are told to go and get HAP. They are told to go on Daft.ieby the people in the council and look for an apartment or house within the HAP limits. For those facing homelessness, the rental limit is €1,950 a month. There is not a single house available in the Dún Laoghaire constituency within that limit. In fact, people are looking for one-bed accommodation at €1,950. The HAP limit for one-bed accommodation is €990 per month. Imagine the despair and hopelessness when those are the options. People are goosed if their income is below €35,000 net. It is as bad for those whose income is over €35,000 net. For example, I am dealing with the case of a woman who is €38 per week over the income threshold. She has been in homeless accommodation with her now 11-year-old child for three and a half years. Her child is getting counselling because of the mental impact of being in one room with his mother for three and a half years, who, by the way, ironically, is working for Tusla, looking after vulnerable children. She is working for the State, looking after vulnerable children, has been in homeless accommodation for three and a half years and has just been knocked off the housing list. What can she get a mortgage for on an income of just over €35,000? She could get a mortgage of around €127,000, when average house prices are around €600,000. She is goosed. She is also being threatened with eviction from homeless accommodation.

I know of another family of six who are in Blackrock. There are two parents, one of whom is working, and four children, who are all at college. The family is just about to be evicted from homeless accommodation because they have gone over the income limit. Can the Minister of State see the madness of this? The family has no chance of paying €350,000, €390,000 or €450,000 for a home. If they were to rent at the average rents in our area of €2,200 or more, that would account for two thirds of all of their income. They simply cannot do it. They are absolutely goosed, but the Government thinks it is okay to carry on with this madness. Up in Cherrywood, in the biggest residential development in the entire State, there are 8,000 housing units which, if they were affordable, would probably go a long a way to solving the housing crisis. Although I agree with the points they have made, I must say to our Labour colleagues that part of the responsibility lies at their door. I recall that when the decisions were being made to sell off what was NAMA land to private developers, I, Deputy Paul Murphy and others railed against it. The consequences are that we are only going to get 300 affordable houses out of 8,000 on what was previously public land. We are being told that affordability will be €37,000 less than the market price, when the developers are saying that they probably will not be able to sell the houses for anything less than €450,000. In other words, the houses will not be affordable for 95% of workers. We still have no idea what the affordable housing in Shanganagh is actually going to cost. When is the Government going to stop with this madness? When is the State going to directly build public and affordable housing on its on land at prices that are really affordable for ordinary working people?

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