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

I thank Deputy Joan Collins and the Independent Group for tabling this important motion. It is a welcome opportunity to discuss the impact of development on our communities across the country and the degree to which these communities are actually benefiting from the development that is occurring. We all understand that, as a matter of urgency, there has to be a significant development of housing. One thing that this motion points to is that the development that is happening is being driven by the profit hunger of property developers who see the housing crisis as an opportunity to make money. Consequently, we get development that does not particularly benefit the community or assist in addressing the housing crisis and where the stresses and pressures that that type of development then puts on communities actually reduce the quality of life and the environment of many in the localities in which those developments take place. Whereas they should be enhancing the quality of life and making things better for people, the opposite is often the truth.

The last consideration is often precisely what the community needs. That does not just start with the development levies and how they are spent but with the development itself. I want to first point out that, given the scale of housing development that is needed and is hopefully likely to happen, in the areas where that development is occurring, we are not getting enough public and affordable housing in the various developments. The provision of 10% social housing is pathetic against the backdrop of the housing lists that we currently have. Even if we add in 10% affordable housing in new developments, that is pathetic. It means that in every private development, with private developers dictating what developments happen in my area and, I suspect, in most people's areas, some 80% of what is being developed is not affordable for ordinary working people. The only people who can buy properties are big funds or, sometimes, approved housing bodies, AHBs. I will come to that. By and large, they are buy-to-rent properties bought by big funds and rented at extortionate rates. The State often ends up paying the bill for them through the rental accommodation scheme, RAS, and housing assistance payment, HAP, even though the people who live in those places still do not have security in respect of where they live and often find themselves evicted further down the line.

The first thing I want to add to this motion is this. If we are going to have a serious impact on the dire housing crisis we are now facing, we need a much bigger proportion of every private development that is completed to go to social and affordable housing. To my mind, there is no point whatsoever in building unaffordable housing. What possible benefit does it serve? To give one example, we have been criticised for opposing some developments in our area. One example is the co-living development that is near completion in Dún Laoghaire, built by Bartra on a former school site. We have been campaigning for public and affordable housing there for more than a decade. It was bought by a property developer who is now completing a co-living development where there will be 200 rooms that are the size of disability parking spaces with pull-out couches. It will cost €1,800 a month to rent them and tenants are only allowed to rent for six months, or it might be extended to a year. In other words, it contributes nothing to the housing need of the area. Ordinary people affected by the housing crisis will not be able to rent those places. It begs the question of who the hell could afford that or would want such a development. That is the kind of development that is going on. It is purely profit-driven. That has to stop.

The quality of the housing is an issue. We have discussed the impact of the Celtic tiger on building defects. It may well be the case that the cowboy building of the Celtic tiger era is not behind us and is still going on. I will give another example. The Acting Chair, Deputy Devlin, may be interested in this. On Johnstown Road, a new development, much welcomed by many of the people to whom houses were allocated, was all bought up by an AHB. Within three months of the development completing, there is uproar among the residents over the quality of the build by the developers. Within three months, there is damp in the newly allocated social housing. Water is pouring into the underground car park. There is no lift in the underground car park, so people have to carry their shopping up two flights of stairs to get in, and there are issues for people with buggies or with mobility issues. There are major problems with the windows. The water going into the car park is also affecting the fire alarm system. Where the hell is the oversight of these developers who are still building stuff like that? It is unbelievable. That needs to be addressed and we need to stop the cowboy builders.

Another example relates to residents of a number of units near Deansgrange that were bought for social housing by the local authority.

People moved into Glebe Court thinking "happy days" because they had somewhere to live, but instead they have found that the place is wracked with damp because the heating systems are not working and there is no proper insulation on the doors and windows. People are literally shivering and freezing during the winter months. It is unbelievable stuff. These things need to be addressed by getting a proper share of the development levies to address them. Instead, it is as Deputy Mac Lochlainn said earlier. I was a co-host of the Oxfam event yesterday, as was Deputy Pringle. Where is all the wealth that Oxfam identified? It is in the hands of the new layer of multimillionaires and billionaires which Oxfam identified in its report. Often it is in the hands of the property developers and property speculators who built these substandard developments where these extortionate rents are being charged. They are profiting off the misery of communities through the extortionate rents associated with substandard building because we do not have proper planning and we do not have appropriate taxes to tax them to give people the community resources, the public services and all the things, including quality housing, that they deserve. I thank Deputy Joan Collins. I hope the Government will start to listen to the issues that are being raised here but I will not hold my breath.

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