Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Cian O'Callaghan and the Social Democrats for bringing forward this very constructive motion on home ownership.

I also thank them for highlighting the fact that members of the Government are spoofers when they claim they are people who champion home ownership. Indeed, they are dishonest in misrepresenting the Opposition as people who are not interested in home ownership when the opposite is the truth. Of course, the Government does not really care, because it is just spin. What this motion very helpfully does is expose the truth and the spoof of the Government around its claim that it is championing home ownership for ordinary people.

Let me give the Minister a few facts to detail just how much he is spoofing and just how disastrous his policies are when it comes to home ownership in our area. I invite the Minister to go on daft.ienow and look at the sale prices of the houses that are being built in the biggest residential development in the country, namely, Cherrywood. Some 8,000 homes are in the process of being built, very slowly it has to be said, by the big investors who bought the land from the State for a song because of the disastrous decision to mandate NAMA to flog a massive property portfolio worth €40 billion, of which Cherrywood was one of the major assets, at discount prices to international investors. Look what the net result is. The Minister should go on daft.ienow. In Mercer Vale in Cherrywood, a three-bedroom terraced house is €620,000. A three-bedroom semi-detached house is €650,000. A four-bedroom unit is €750,000. Those "affordable" prices are being delivered by none other than our favourite builder, Cairn Homes, whose profits went up last year by 76% to €103 million. Its revenue went up to €617 million, which is up 46% on the year before. Cairn Homes is making an absolute fortune on houses that are completely unaffordable for about 95% of workers in this country.

The average house price in Dún Laoghaire is €610,000. In order to get a mortgage from a bank for that amount, a person would need an income of €156,000. In other words, he or she is never going to get it. Who is going to buy these homes? We have some statistics on what has happened. In the past 12 months, 60% of the homes purchased in Dublin have been purchased by non-first-time buyers, by institutional investors, corporate landlords and major investors. In March, the figure was 73%. Of course they did, because who else could afford them except big international investors? They will then charge shocking rents. The average rent in my area is now about €3,000 a month. Who on earth could afford that? That is the reality.

Even taking the average house price across the country, which is lower at €308,000, someone would need an income of €79,000 to buy one. In Dublin as a whole, the average house price is €448,000 so someone would need an income of €128,000 to buy one of those. That is the reality of what is going on - totally unaffordable houses and massive profits being made by the likes of Cairn Homes, which bought residential development land from the State for a song. Courtesy of the State, its shareholders are becoming millionaires by selling stuff that nobody can afford and reaping absolutely massive profits.

To add to that, mortgage interest rate hikes now mean an extra €4,000 or €5,000 a year for people to service mortgages on these unaffordable properties, which is going to further inhibit the capacity of people to own their own homes. People Before Profit suggested that the Government cap interest rates at 3%. The Social Democrats are making constructive proposals here and the Government just ignores the lot.

The affordable housing in Cherrywood, for the €15 million in local infrastructure housing activation fund, LIHAF, funding as well as lots of other-----

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