Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to discuss the affordable housing scheme in County Louth, specifically Cois Farraige in Blackrock just outside Dundalk. Time was extended to allow more people to apply. Initially, there were just 26 applications, only five of which met the criteria. Council officials said that the difficulty lay with the criteria. Not for the first time, I will put it on the record that I do not believe that €305,000 is what an affordable housing scheme should be priced at. It means a large number of people are priced out of the scheme. If anyone looking for a house in Cois Farraige at the moment went onto daft.ie, he or she would see prices of €360,000 and €385,000. We need to examine the criteria. My proposal would be for what we in Sinn Féin would like to see in terms of affordable housing, as the criteria are not that.

It goes without saying that we are dealing with disaster-level rents. We have seen the Daft.ie rental report. The average monthly rent in Louth is €1,661. Across the State, it is €1,836. That pushes a lot of people out of the rental market. The average month in Louth represents an increase of 6.9%. If one went onto daft.ie – I am getting great use out of it, unfortunately – one would see nine or 11 ads for available properties in Dundalk and its surrounds. I will cite a few of them: a one-bedroom apartment at €1,000 per month; a three-bedroom house for €1,500; a three-bedroom house for €1,750; and a four-bedroom house for €2,450. I could go on, but not for very long. These rents are beyond the reach of many people. We need to see the radical reset that the commission mentioned.

See this speech in context