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

He has to ask himself why it is so difficult to own a home. The reason is the policies the Government and its predecessors have introduced have pushed up house prices. Today, house prices are higher than they have ever been in the history of the State.

Let us consider those policies. The Minister of State's predecessor, Michael Noonan, introduced egregious tax reliefs for institutional investors that incentivised speculative investment, which pushed up land prices and increased development costs and the cost of buying or renting a home. His predecessors, Deputy Simon Coveney, and the former Minister, Eoghan Murphy, made regressive changes to planning policy on building heights and design standards, including build to rent, which has been mentioned. Again, that incentivised speculative investment in the wrong kind of developments, reducing the number of homes to purchase that have been produced and increasing development costs.

One of the few potentially good measures introduced by the previous Government, Home Building Finance Ireland, HBFI, has the aim of getting lending to small and medium-sized businesses outside of Dublin for home ownership. It charges interest rates above what banks and other lenders are providing and, therefore, it is not contributing in the way it should.

Let us consider the so-called help-to-buy scheme. Not only does it push up house prices and make it more difficult for people to buy, 40% of the money the Government has spent on the scheme went to people who did not need it. They had deposits and a bank mortgage, yet the Government gave €200 million of taxpayers' money to them. That money could have been spent delivering genuine affordable homes or, better still, getting 1,000 families out of emergency accommodation. The controversial shared equity loan has not only been universally criticised and pushed up house prices, but is also high risk and will saddle many working people with significant levels of additional debt, a risk the Government should not have taken.

In its housing plan, the Government did not mention that the number of State homes that will go onto the market each year to buy will remain static. Approximately 5,000 or 6,000 will be available each year. No matter what the macro figure is, the Government will not reduce prices. What highlights the appalling nature of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael when it comes to affordable housing is that when Eoghan Murphy was Minister for housing he stood where the Minister of State is now in 2018 and promised 6,000 affordable homes through the serviced sites fund between 2019 and 2021. Can the Minister of State tell us how many of those 6,000 affordable homes were delivered? Can anybody guess? Not a single affordable home was delivered during that period. Last year, a paltry 325 affordable homes were delivered. In fact, many are only now being purchased. They were not available to purchase last year.

The prices of some of those homes are quite questionable. The worst example of all might be what was in theBusiness Postlast weekend, namely the Poolbeg strategic development zone. It is a significant site for the city, unanimously agreed on by the elected members of Dublin City Council. What price will the Government charge people for a one-bedroom apartment? It will cost €410,000. What price will charge for affordable rental for a one-bedroom unit? It will cost €1,500. The Minister of State should not insult our intelligence by suggesting he is in favour of home ownership.

There is an alternative. We have set it out year after year in our alternative budgets. The Social Democrats has set out its plan. The only way we will tackle rising house prices, rents and homelessness is by kicking Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael out of government and electing a progressive left left-wing Sinn Féin Government that invests in serious housing affordability. As long as they are in government, house prices will continue to rise.

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