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

I thank the Rural Independent Group for tabling this motion today and allowing us to have a very important debate. Sinn Féin has long argued on the floor of the Dáil and Seanad that the housing crisis is not just an urban phenomenon. It is not just in the cities or the larger towns. It affects every town, village and rural parish in the State. It is important to understand why it is that way. At the very centre of the housing crisis in urban and rural areas is the failure of Government to deliver a sufficient volume of social homes, affordable rental and affordable purchase homes, including self-built homes in rural areas. We have had debate after debate about the Government targets not only being too low but being missed. Here we are talking about a lack of affordable homes and the Minister continues to underspend his capital budget, with a 32% underspend in the first four months of this year. That money could and should be spent meeting housing need.

We also do not talk enough about the scandal of the affordable housing fund itself because, of course, as rural Deputies will know, it hardly applies to rural counties at all. In fact, when it was first established it only applied to areas that allegedly had an affordability test which excluded every single rural county in the State. Then, under pressure from those local authorities and politicians, it was extended to some extent but in many areas it still either does not apply or is applied to such an extent that the number of homes will simply not be enough. That is before we raise the fact that only handfuls of homes are being delivered under that scheme.

Contrary to the misinformation of the Minister, Sinn Féin is not against the Croí Cónaithe grant scheme; we have never opposed it. We have said from the outset that is badly designed, underfunded and lacks ambition. We just have a better proposal that would put a far greater number of derelict and vacant properties back into use, including for people to purchase in towns and villages, but, of course, the Minister would much prefer to misrepresent us than acknowledge that his own scheme, which has now changed twice, is simply not fit for purpose.

I have considerable sympathy for some of the arguments I have heard to date with respect to planning. Certain rural areas are in decline. It is not only that their populations are stagnating but their populations are falling. That is happening in villages, small towns and countryside areas. It is a scandal that a working group has spent six years preparing the new rural planning guidelines which are not yet published. Even worse, all of our local authorities, including those in Kerry, Limerick and Cork, have completed their development plan reviews without having those guidelines which creates uncertainty for planners in our local authorities, for communities as well as for individuals trying to get access to homes in a way that is sustainable. The people who live in rural Ireland are the ones who have the greatest vested interest in good-quality sustainable planning, yet Government policy is militating against that. My understanding is those draft planning guidelines were ready over two years ago but because of divisions on the backbenches of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, they have yet to be published. I eagerly await their publication by the Minister.

The real irony of Government policy in this respect is that, on the one hand, particularly in proximity to cities and towns, Government wants to restrict planning in the perimeter areas but, at the same time, Government is failing to provide affordable housing or affordable housing options in those towns and villages. Government cannot have it at both ways and it needs to act.

Sinn Féin has real alternatives. Increasing the targets and funding for social and affordable homes in rural and urban areas is absolutely key. The affordable housing fund could be used in really innovative ways, particularly in countryside areas to facilitate people who want to build their own homes in small sustainable clusters so they can live, work and continue to be part of those rural communities. We could have a much more proactive vacancy strategy with the local authorities taking the lead, not just for social housing but also for affordable rental and affordable purchase housing with the grant option that is necessary. Instead of delivering fewer than 600 vacant and derelict homes that are targeted under this Government scheme, a target of 2,000 over the next three years, we could be bringing in at least 4,000 vacant and derelict homes predominantly in towns and villages in rural counties every single year. That is what we need.

We also need specific plans in those countryside areas, in particular rural Gaeltachtaí where local authorities are able to give clear guidance to communities as to how they can sustain and grow their populations. I talk to a significant number of Gaeltacht planning officers as well as people living in those communities who desperately want this strategy to sustain and grow their communities.

Nobody has talked about the small and medium-sized builder. In the main, other than self-built houses, the vast majority of homes in rural areas are built by small builders. I talk to builders right across the country on a regular basis. They cannot access finance because Home Building Finance Ireland is a mess and the planning process is taking too long.

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