Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

With respect to the pipeline in my own constituency, the pipeline of affordable homes is not very strong. It is anaemic to say the least. There will not be 100 affordable homes in Rathcoole because Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil councillors voted to de-zone the land. We may get some social housing in there, but greatly reduced from what was originally planned.

Likewise, while we have just approved a Part 8 decision in Clondalkin for much-needed affordable homes, there will only be about 50 there and Kilcarbery will only end up with about 50 or so houses.

In my constituency, therefore, we are not even going to reach a couple of hundred houses over the next few years and in the local authority area perhaps double that figure. That is in a constituency that needs thousands of affordable homes over the lifetime of this Government and will not get those.

To be clear, is the Minister saying there have been affordable home purchases where mortgages have been drawn down from private banks, for example, in north County Dublin? What is the understanding of the Minister as to why banks were willing to lend to these people but not to others? The allocation scheme for south Dublin has been in place for some time. My understanding from the correspondence I have seen from the banks is that the issue was not something particular to south Dublin but concern about the operation of the scheme and the level of equity of the State. If the Minister has more information I would welcome him sharing it.

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