Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The housing disaster is causing devastation among workers and families all over the country. Increasingly it is an enormous problem for businesses too. Every major business group has now pointed to housing being their most serious concern. Chambers Ireland recently warned that the acute shortage of housing was causing companies to take drastic action. It said big businesses are now considering buying up entire housing estates for their workers. IBEC has identified the problem as being not just a chronic lack of supply, but a crisis in the supply of affordable homes. This affordability crisis, according to IBEC, is now a critical barrier to the continued growth and development of business investment and expansion. IBEC is dead right. House prices and rents have never been higher. Workers on average incomes can no longer afford to buy or rent their own homes. Many people who are renting are barely scraping by. Workers are increasingly spending upwards of 40% or even 50% of their take-home pay to keep a roof over their heads. This is unsustainable at any time but in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, it is creating huge hardship.

The reality is housing is now only affordable for those on the highest incomes. Workers on average incomes cannot afford to buy a home in Dublin for €500,000. They cannot afford annual rents around the country of more than €20,000 either. These sums are astronomical and far out of reach for workers and families. They see no signs of help from the Government. There are no signs of hope either.

The Government claims it is doing something about the affordability crisis but it is just more spin. During ten years of Fine Gael Governments, not a single affordable home was delivered. Last year, this Government only managed to deliver 1,700 affordable homes out of a target of 4,100. That is barely 40%. The Minister recently told the American Chamber of Commerce that housing was the Government’s biggest domestic policy priority and the issue was about supply. He has to recognise we need not just supply but affordable supply.

I do not think even the multinationals believe the Minister's assurances on housing any more. They, like us, have listened to him make the same broken promises for years. Is the Minister aware of any businesses that are considering buying entire housing estates for their workers? Does he agree that the housing affordability crisis is the most pressing concern for businesses, as well as workers and families, and that it is not just about supply but also about the affordability of that supply?

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