Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is the Minister of State and I again, at the end of a debate and a crisis that is deepening. I will pick up for a moment on something Deputy Harkin said. Let me outline the analysis that has been done on the help to buy scheme by many agencies. The original cost was €40 million. It is now €175 million and rising which is four and a half times the estimated cost. More than one third of those who availed of it did not need any help with a deposit. The Mazars report said it should be scrapped but not now. We cannot scrap it now, just like all the other initiatives that the Government has brought in which have become embedded to raise the prices upwards to super prices that nobody can afford. Looking at the analysis done, all of these schemes confirm that. What did they say about it? The scheme is poorly targeted with respect to incomes, location, house prices and other socio-economic factors. It has a socially regressive impact. One-third of the recipients did not need any help with a deposit. That is the help to buy scheme.

The housing assistant payment, HAP, was brought in as the only game in town. The Housing Agency at the time said it was absolutely delighted with it. It said it makes a real and positive difference. The HAP scheme costs €1 billion per year with the other schemes. We persist in calling that social housing. That is not social housing. I listened with dismay to the Taoiseach this morning saying he had no ideology. That is absolutely disingenuous. He has an ideology and so had the previous Government. So had Labour and Fine Gael together who brought in the HAP scheme. The ideology is “the market will provide” and when it does not provide we will bring in any amount of piecemeal initiatives to make sure that we keep the prices high, including the setting up of the National Asset Management Agency, NAMA, and the disgraceful way that it dealt with property and not homes.

Here is the Simon Community again, locked out of the market, telling us there are absolutely no properties or homes available in Galway city or suburbs; under the HAP – the only game in town – none is available. No homes were built in Galway other than two or three. A task force which I foolishly welcomed more than three years ago has no sense of urgency and not one report has been published from it. I have asked a question. The junior Minister was honest and said it should have been given but has not. I will finish by quoting somebody who happens to be a postgraduate, PhD student - I will not go into the details - and is going to be evicted on 1 May, but has nowhere to go. She went to the city council but no emergency accommodation was available.

There are solutions. The most basic solution is public housing on public land and a very strong message to the market. That is not happening.

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