Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I want to acknowledge and thank all those who have contributed to this evening's debate. I want to echo the comments made earlier by the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and reassert the Government's commitment to tackling the challenge in the housing sector. We know the challenges are having a real impact on people's lives and on the nation as a whole. We understand the urgency and the need to ensure people have safe, secure and affordable homes. We do not underestimate the scale of the challenge and we are putting in the work day in, day out to address the challenges and implement the policies, plans and schemes to steer the country out of this housing crisis.

The motion Deputy Ó Broin and his party have tabled for this evening's debate, coupled with the Deputy's recent commentary, do not fairly represent the efforts and progress the Government has made. The Deputy makes the point that we need to increase social, affordable and cost-rental accommodation and on this point we certainly agree. The Government is doing just that. Nearly 12,000 new social homes were delivered in 2023. This represents a significant increase on delivery in 2022 with an increase of 16.3%. More importantly, it is the highest delivery of new build social homes - 8,100 - in half a century. When the housing assistant payment, HAP, and the rental accommodation scheme, RAS, are included, 22,773 social housing supports were delivered in 2023. We delivered more than 4,000 affordable solutions in 2023, more than doubling our activity in the previous year. It is important to note that in 2022 delivery from a standing start provided the first affordable homes in a generation. Our ambition is to deliver even more. Budget 2024 secured funding for an additional 6,400 affordable homes. It is imperative that we work with the local authorities and redouble our efforts to deliver more affordable homes.

The Deputy mentioned increasing rents, but omitted to mention that more than 1,600 cost-rental homes have already been delivered by the Government and that there are a further 1,400 plus cost-rental homes in the pipeline. The Deputy neglected to mention the more than €675 million of cost-rental equity loan funding, supporting the delivery of more than 3,250 cost-rental homes by approved housing bodies, AHBs. The Deputy also neglected to mention the secure tenancy affordable rental investment scheme, STAR, introduced by this Government, which aims to invest in the delivery of more than 4,000 cost-rental homes by 2027. The Deputy said that this Government is not doing enough, but it is clear that through the implementation of Housing for All, we have securely laid the foundations and built the pipeline that will allow us to continue to ramp up delivery in the coming years.

I have heard a lot of commentary about the targets being too low. Housing for All is an evidence-based living policy that is agile by design and is under continuous review. When the research currently being undertaken by the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, is presented to the Government, the targets set out in Housing for All will be updated. The setting of targets is one thing, building actual homes is another. Since this Government took office in 2020, more than 100,000 new homes have been delivered and that is a fact .

The Deputy said that this Government is not spending the money to fix the housing crisis. The fact is that a record €5.1 billion in capital investment in housing was approved by Government in budget 2024. This present level of capital funding is the highest ever in the history of the State and will ensure that we continue to deliver at pace new affordable homes for purchase and rent.

With regard to the Deputy's affordable leasehold purchase scheme, there is no real detail provided in the motion that would suggest Sinn Féin can achieve house prices in the region of €300,000. As someone who represents the Dublin region, let us see his costed detail for a home in the capital. Furthermore, there is no indication of the cost of the State of such a proposal. On the other hand, Housing for All includes a comprehensive suite of measures that address the viability gap and improve the affordability of housing. Two these are the help to buy scheme and the first home shared equity scheme. The Deputy claims that these schemes only appear to help Irish people buy their first homes. I think the 30,450 first-time buyers who were approved for mortgages last year may disagree with the Deputy on that claim. In particular, the first home scheme has proven to be a key support for first-time buyers. The scheme continues to support first-time buyers and other eligible home buyers in purchasing new homes and apartments in the private market. In addition, since September 2023, the first home scheme now supports those who wish to build their own home.

There were 809 approvals and 262 homes purchased under the first home scheme in Q1 of 2024 alone. Approvals are up by 38% compared to Q1 of 2023. Given the success of the scheme to date, we have committed an additional €40 million to it, continuing to drive affordable homeownership for our citizens.

Regarding the help to buy scheme, to date, 47,496 claims have been made, of which 46,599 have been approved. The Sinn Féin motion states that the Government has missed its vacant property refurbishment grants targets by 83% last year. I think the Deputy needs to know that statement is certainly disingenuous in regard to the number of applications.

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