Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise the issue of affordable housing schemes. Galway County Council is finding it very difficult to put schemes in place in towns such as Tuam, which is the largest county town, Ballinasloe, Loughrea, Gort or Athenry. This is on the basis that the figures do not stack up. Affordability schemes will be in Claregalway, Oranmore and Galway city. The structure by which the scheme has been drafted sets out density levels which are then linked to the supports that come from the Government. The cost of land, the cost of finance and particularly upfront finance, and the absence of any open market value in these areas really and truly raises barriers to getting a scheme that can be deemed to be affordable for the purchaser or young couple who want to buy the house and get approval from the Department.

In essence, what I am saying is that linking density of housing development to the amount of support the Government gives towards an affordable scheme is flawed. It is leaving large towns without an opportunity to provide the affordable housing schemes which are needed. I will take Tuam as an example. Tuam has a population of 8,000 or 9,000 people and not one private housing scheme has been constructed there since 2007 or 2008. We have a housing crisis. I acknowledge we have built an awful lot of social housing but we need to provide houses where people can get an affordable mortgage and be able to live without being a prisoner to it. We need to make the affordable scheme more flexible and not try to have it in a way that one size fits all. A large number of towns around the country are in the same situation.

Coupled with this we can take the smaller villages such as Corofin, Abbeyknockmoy or other such towns where people cannot build because there is no wastewater scheme. An Bord Pleanála has deemed that any development of a housing scheme in these towns and villages is premature until a wastewater treatment plant is delivered. On top of this we have a situation where existing housing estates with private wastewater treatment plants are not being taken in charge by the local authority or Irish Water. If there are infill sites in these developments they cannot get planning permission to build them out. These are the issues affecting delivering houses to people who want to pay for them and want to get them at an affordable price. I ask the Taoiseach to carry out a review of this.

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