Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I listened to part of the Tánaiste's interview on Newstalk yesterday. I know he agrees with the President that the housing situation is now a disaster. However, he seems to have trouble figuring out who is responsible for that disaster. I will join some of the dots.

The Tánaiste and Fine Gael have now been in government for 11 years. For most of that time, there has been a housing crisis. His party has repeatedly told us that houses cannot be built overnight. Enda Kenny was one of the first to use that line in 2015. People have been listening to the Tánaiste's party acknowledging the crisis for eight years and now he is acknowledging that is not just a crisis, but a disaster. In 2016, Deputy Coveney told this House that not even rapid-build housing could be built overnight. Of course, it was never built so the Government tried something else. It brought in legislation for strategic housing developments that bypassed local planning procedures. That was supposed to speed up the delivery of housing but, in fact, slowed it down and eroded local democracy, creating great problems in the planning system. There is a real scandal in An Bord Pleanála in that regard that has yet to properly unfold. The Government brought in build-to-rent legislation that allows developers to build lower quality rental accommodation. Build-to-rent accommodation is now practically the only residential accommodation being built in Dublin city because it is the most profitable. In 2020, nearly 82% of residential schemes for which permission was applied for or granted in Dublin were build-to-rent developments, all of which come with sky-high rents. Where are people supposed to buy? People are being pushed out. One would start to wonder about the 15-minute sustainable communities. Some of Government's other innovations have been equally bad. It spent a long time trying to bring in co-living developments, that is, apartments smaller than car parking spaces for disabled people. It finally abandoned that idea and now mostly focuses on handing developers cash rewards of up to €144,000 for every apartment they build and continuing lucrative tax breaks for vulture funds.

Does the Tánaiste know how enraging it is for people who have been listening for years to promises that this crisis will be sorted out to hear the Government absolve itself from causing that crisis as if it is a disinterested party? What is he going to do to resolve this disaster, which he has acknowledged?

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