Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the Deputies for their contributions. We appreciate the opportunity to set out the important progress being made by the Government in terms of providing affordable housing solutions to those on modest incomes who are above the income thresholds for social housing. We are all aware of the scale of the housing task we face and of the profound impact that the consequences of housing supply challenges and affordability have on the daily lives of so many individuals and families. We understand the imperative of ensuring that people have safe, secure and affordable housing. We understand the pressure that housing constraints are placing on our collective social and economic progress at community and national level. People rightly look to the Government to solve those problems.

As the contributions here this evening have shown, there are many complex, multifaceted and interwoven challenges at play here, which the Government is addressing and seeking to resolve as quickly and definitively as possible. This must be approached in a carefully planned, well-resourced, timely, proactive, responsive and sustainable way, so that we rebuild and renew our housing delivery system to ensure it is capable of addressing our current and emerging housing needs sustainably over time. This is precisely what the Government is undertaking in Housing for All, as clearly set out by the Minister, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, earlier. As Members know, Housing For All is a comprehensive, coherent and well-funded suite of measures to address the housing challenges we face, not least the housing supply, ownership, rental, vacancy and homelessness challenges mentioned tonight, all of which are acknowledged by the Government and being tackled in our all-of-government plan. Boosting housing supply, through public and private sector development, is critical to the plan and needed to yield housing affordability and boost homeownership.

Last year, almost 30,000 new homes were added to our national housing stock, up 45.2% from 2021, a significant gear change in a single year. Home completions during the first seven months of 2023 are continuing to perform at the highest level on record since 2011, when the Central Statistics Office, CSO, began its current data series. New home commencements likewise continue to outperform expectations, with 18,500 commencements between January and July, up 12% on the same period last year. A record €4.5 billion in State housing investment in 2023 will ensure this supply momentum can be maintained and exceeded, with 9,100 direct-build social homes and 5,500 affordable homes to be delivered. None of this is happening by accident. It is happening on the back of the measures and initiatives that the Government has put in place under the Housing for All plan, which is delivering actual homes for people to purchase and rent in significant numbers.

Affordability and ownership concerns are at the heart of this debate. All of us here want to see an acceleration of the delivery of affordable homes and put homeownership trends on an upward trajectory. It is easy to forget that many of the affordable housing delivery measures now in place simply did not exist until we passed the Affordable Housing Act 2021. From a standing start, almost 1,800 affordable homes were delivered last year. We know that delivery must be expanded and accelerated and we are building the capacity to do that across our delivery partners: local authorities, first homes, approved housing bodies and the Land Development Agency. We will continue to build on this momentum as delivery scales up further in 2023 and beyond.

First-time buyer numbers are growing. CSO data shows that some 17,220 homes, including about 5,280 new homes, were purchased by first-time buyers in the year to June 2023, an 8% increase on the previous year. First-time buyers thus represent one third of all homes purchased by households in the period.

The Government will continue to grow and expand the potential for first-time buyers to secure a home they own through the ongoing help-to-buy, first home and local authority affordable purchase schemes, together with the recently expanded local authority home loan scheme. I am particularly pleased that the expansion of the first home scheme to include self-build product was announced this week. This expansion will help the many people around the country who decide to build their first home, rather than purchase a new build. Applications for self-build customers are now open online.

In the rental market clearly the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, the Residential Tenancies Board and the Housing Agency each play important distinct and complementary roles and monitoring the operation of the market in line with the Residential Tenancies Acts 2004 to 2022.

For its part the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is currently finalising a comprehensive review of the private rental sector. It is considering the significant regulatory changes, including rent controls, over the past several years and will report on how our housing system can be enhanced to provide an efficient, affordable, viable, safe and secure framework for both landlords and tenants. The review includes consideration of submissions made as part of the consultation process that ran over the summer, as well as targeted engagement through a stakeholder engagement forum on the review held in July.

At present, 77% of tenancies are covered by the rent cap. The operation of rent pressure zones remains in place until the end of 2024. Outside of rent pressure zones, a landlord may only increase rents every second year, providing rent certainty to tenants for 24 months. This is allied to a general prohibition under the Residential Tenancies Acts that any rent set cannot exceed market rent. It is highly likely that a blanket ban on rent increases for a significant duration would be subject to legal challenge and would almost certainly deter continued investment in the rental accommodation market.

With regard to continuing calls for the restoration of the winter eviction ban, the Government has been categorical in its considered view that any continued reliance on such measures would be detrimental to medium- and long-term supply of private rental accommodation. This position has not changed. The alternative, and correct course of action, has been to focus on the additional measures announced last March to increase the supply of homes in three ways, namely, by scrapping development levies for a time-limited period providing a saving up to the value of €12,650 on average per home thus creating an added incentive to build; by substantially increasing the grants available for renovation of vacant and derelict properties and extending these to rental properties as well as owner-occupied properties; and by investing up to €750 million in the delivery of over 4,000 cost-rental homes under the new secure tenancy affordable rental investment scheme, applications for which have already been made and are being assessed.

These supported cost-rental homes will offer eligible affordable housing applicants secure tenancies in high-demand urban areas at a rent at least 25% below market rents. Taken together, these measures accelerate supply, particularly the supply of affordable rental properties, while addressing vacancy and encouraging more efficient use of existing building stock for housing purposes.

Unprecedented challenges have impacted spending plans on housing in recent years including the war in Europe and the lasting effects of the global pandemic. However, last year saw the highest capital spend ever for the Vote of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, an overall increase of 28% in 2022 versus 2021. Over 93% of the 2022 capital provision, including capital carryover, was spent. This year continues to see further record investment in housing, with total Exchequer funding of €4 billion being made available to deliver housing programmes. Overall, €4.5 billion will be available for capital investment in housing. This is the highest level of funding dedicated to housing in the history of the State.

While the original motion focuses on a range of challenges on matters, which are, of course, a shared concern of the Government, the job of Government is to address and ultimately resolve these challenges. The second annual review of Housing for All actions is currently under way and an updated action plan will be published following the budget in October to renew our focus and sustain momentum on implementation and delivery.

There has been clear progress and we have an extremely solid foundation upon which to build for the future. The reforms we have introduced have taken time because they are so comprehensive and far reaching. This is not a short-term and unambitious approach, but a solution to a problem that has festered for years. The Government’s plan is comprehensive and detailed. We will continue to listen to feedback and seek ways to improve. However, one thing that will never change is the core message of the plan and the driving aim of the Government as a whole to provide well-built, affordable housing for all.

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