Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I watched the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, and his Ministers of State give their budget press conference yesterday. I do not think I have ever seen the Minister look so uncomfortable. He appeared not only deflated but at some points even defeated. He was almost like a man who did not want to be there, which was not unlike his very brief presence today in the Chamber. When we look at what happened yesterday, it is hardly surprising that the Minister was so uncomfortable. Billions of euro in additional expenditure were announced by almost all the other Ministers in their press conferences but in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage virtually nothing extra has been allocated for the delivery of social or affordable homes. The Minister can come in here and talk about €6 billion having been allocated for next year but that figure is a fiction. It is just like when the Government said that €5 billion would be spent this year. That has proved to be a fiction, and the €4 billion announced the year before that was also a fiction.

Probably the best way to explain this is the fanfare about the allegedly increased funding for the Land Development Agency. In his budget press conference a year ago, the Minister said he was going to allocate an additional €6 billion of capitalisation to the Land Development Agency. He had not even discussed it, let alone agreed it, with his other Ministers. Days, weeks and then months passed by. Only at the end of December was there a Cabinet agreement that, in fact, instead of €6 billion, it would only be €1.25 billion sanctioned at the end of last year, with a further €1.25 billion to be provided this year but without any clarity on the source of funding. Yesterday's announcement of €1.25 billion in funding for the Land Development Agency is the third time this funding has been announced. It was announced last October, last December and now. It is not additional funding. It is funding for the LDA to deliver on the existing targets within the existing Government plan but with nothing additional. In fact, there is still a €3 billion black hole in the LDA's finances, creating uncertainty as to whether it will deliver on its programme out to 2028.

When we look at what was announced yesterday the total extra capital spend for housing was a paltry €330 million. That is the sum total of what the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, secured in his budget negotiations. This is why there is no increase in the delivery of social and affordable homes next year in existing targets. The Minister is right in that he always said he would revise those targets at the end of October, but that is too late for 2025. This means we will not get any increase in much-needed social and affordable homes next year on existing targets. That means that house prices and rents will continue to rise and so too will homelessness. One of the few areas where there was a significant increase in funding was in homeless emergency accommodation, where an extra €61 million was announced. This was an admission by the Government that homelessness next year is going to continue to rise. I am not surprised by that.

Interestingly, the €100 million extra the Government and the Minister greatly celebrated for the inflationary and controversial first homes scheme did not come to pass. It has only been increased by an extra €30 million and the targets remain as they were originally at 2,000 purchases for next year. The Minister talked about the renter's tax credit. An extra €250 will be of no use if the money goes in one pocket and out the other in the form of a rent hike by landlords. It is essentially a payment to landlords and not to tenants. Sinn Féin has always argued that unless rents are capped at the same time as increasing the tax credit, the credit will be of no real benefit to renters.

On the adaptation grants, the Minister of State, Deputy Dillon, said there is an extra €25 million for them. Unfortunately, he has now left the Chamber, but that is not what the budget book says. It states there is €25 million for disability grants and €75 million for adaptation grants. That is a total of €100 million, and that is what was in the budget for this year and it is what the budget book says will be there for next year. There is no increase in the funding for the retrofitting of social homes, despite the fact that many of the people living in those homes do so in serious fuel poverty. Again, we have been given two different figures on defects. The budget book says the funding is €70 million, the same as this year, while a sum of €100 million was mentioned at the press conference yesterday. Either way, this goes nowhere close to tackling the scale of Celtic tiger-era defects and defective blocks or other materials. Looking at the budget as a whole, when it comes to housing it is a wasted opportunity. It is more of the same and means that nothing will change next year.

We have set out a very clear alternative. It would have seen an extra €2.4 billion of direct capital investment in social and affordable homes next year to double output. We have also published a detailed and fully costed alternative housing plan to show how we can deliver real affordability, end long-term homelessness and increase the supply of private homes at more moderated prices for first-time buyers. What the Minister made clear yesterday and in his very brief appearance here today is that next year things will continue in the same way if this Government is in power. House prices will rise, rents will rise, homelessness will rise and people will continue to be unable to get secure and adequate affordable accommodation. That is why what we really need is a general election, a change of Government and a change of plan to start tackling this housing crisis.

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