Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Last year, the Government promised to deliver 4,000 affordable homes. It failed and failed miserably. Instead, just over 1,700 homes were delivered across all affordable housing delivery streams. This is a shocking indictment and again shows that the Government is failing to ensure that people can access affordable homes to rent and to buy. Coming up to its third year in office, what my constituents hear very clearly coming from the Government parties is that they are simply incapable of responding to this crisis with any level of urgency. They have failed to deliver affordable homes to buy or to rent and failed to reach their own low new-build social housing targets. The Government's third year will be completed soon, so when is it going to admit its housing policies are not working?

Figures speak for themselves and they are speaking as loudly as those Government's failures. In my constituency of Longford-Westmeath, County Westmeath, with a population of approximately 90,000, had a whole three properties delivered under the first homes strand and ten allegedly affordable homes. The entry level for a two-bedroom terraced house there was priced at in excess of €240,000. Heaven forbid that people might have larger families because the cost of a four-bedroom house was just under €300,000. I said "allegedly affordable" because today a two-bedroom terraced house in that same area of Athlone is priced at €145,000. This is more than €95,000 cheaper than the so-called affordable housing scheme and no equity is held.

Then there is County Longford, which has a population of 45,000, and not one single affordable house. There was not even one, zip, nada, none. In fact, that county did not even qualify for an affordable housing scheme until recently. So much for housing for all. Across two counties, therefore, with approximately 140,000 people, the grand achievement of this Government in affordable housing to buy, but with an equity held, is ten units, while under the first home scheme, it is three units. There has been not one cost-rental home built. Overall, this is a whopping total of 13 properties. The Government set low targets and failed to meet them because it knows as well as we do on this side of the House that its housing policies have failed.

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