Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As I stand here this evening, there are families, individuals and couples, all prospective first-time buyers, in the Clonakilty area of west Cork who are gutted. I am gutted too. I will explain why. For the first time, west Cork was going to see the delivery of an affordable housing scheme - something that I and the people of the area had been seeking for years. There was finally going to be an affordable housing scheme. We had delivered social houses and plenty of houses had gone on sale on the private market, but this was 22 houses in Clonakilty to cater for those who could not get finance and who were not on the social housing list. They are gutted because that affordable housing scheme has collapsed. It is gone. It is no longer available. That is an absolute disgrace. Houses that would have been on the market for €340,000 or €345,000 were going to be sold for in and around €260,000. In using the word "affordable" to describe houses in that range, I understand why the criticisms come. It is significantly less than €345,000, however. People were excited and were looking forward to the possibilities. I am aware it was on a first-come-first-served basis and not everyone was guaranteed, but at least the option was there. It is no longer there.

This is not the fault of Cork County Council. It is not the fault of the auctioneer. It is not the fault of the builder. In my opinion, the blame lies squarely at the feet of the developer. There is one word, in my opinion, that can be used to describe what has gone on here and that is "greed". I want to explain why this affordable housing scheme has collapsed. At this point, it will not be saved. It has collapsed because an agreement in principle, maybe not a contract - it was not tied down - was reached with Cork County Council for 22 affordable homes. Eighteen of those would have been three-bed houses and four would have been two-bed houses - the local authority knowing that the biggest demand in terms of affordable housing would have been for three bedrooms. Just as Cork County Council was ready to press go and just as it was ready to advertise - it had everything ready to advertise this scheme earlier this year - the goalposts were moved. As far as I can gather, the developer came back with a new proposal that it would not give the local authority those first 22 houses, including the 18 to which I refer, and instead would give the local authority ten three-bed and 12 two-bed houses, which was a completely different prospect. There was also a discussion on a new price.

I do not blame Cork County Council one iota for withdrawing from this project. I do not blame the local authority if it never deals with this developer again, and that is the point I want to make here today. When developers behave in this way-----

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