Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

There was not a word about what else will be done or needs to be done on affordable housing. There was a 90-second, or thereabouts, defence of the Minister's record on it. Disappointingly, there was no discussion of the challenges we face in delivering more affordable housing, as is needed. Before I was elected to this House and when I was first elected, I imagined in my naivety that in these discussions we would get into some of that detail. It would be useful, and it would help us all to advance in this, if we were to get some detail from the Minister of his views on the challenges the country faces in delivering more affordable housing. There are some key challenges there and I will address them. We do not talk enough about them. We can have back and forth between parties - that is an important part of a robust democratic process and should take place - but we also need to look at the structural challenges we face in delivering the affordable housing we need.

We in the Social Democrats have published our affordable housing plan, Homes Within Reach. It is fully costed and shows how we could deliver an annual average of 10,000 affordable purchase homes in the next five years, in addition to affordable rental, social housing and private sector delivery. Setting those targets and showing how they can be delivered and financed is quite achievable; the more difficult part concerns the constraints in delivering more housing. This is a key point. The Minister will be announcing his revised housing targets shortly. It is disappointing it has taken the lifetime of this Government for that to happen. Key in announcing those targets is talking about the structural challenges to be faced in delivering more housing, including affordable housing. A key challenge is around sites and acquisitions, and this goes for affordable housing as well. It is around land costs, getting a site, getting it through the planning system, getting utilities connected and infrastructure. Those are challenges faced by anyone, be it a not-for-profit or any other builder. I have talked about not-for-profits in terms of affordable housing needing early-stage finance to get through those processes. They are key challenges for anyone trying to build housing. There is a strong case for derisking that as much as possible, as is done in other countries. Those who want to build, be they not-for-profits, social housing or private builders, should have the process derisked and simplified. That reduces cost as well.

We have had, through the national planning framework, the Office of the Planning Regulator and other measures, necessary changes to the planning system. The days of someone buying a field and easily connecting to utilities, leapfrogging development and engaging in other poor planning practices are gone. There were problems with all that, but the changes have been tightening up people's ability to move projects forward. The State playing a more active role in that, through the Land Development Agency having strong compulsory purchase powers or local authorities using the compulsory purchase powers they have but which are not being funded or mandated, would be a key part of the solution. That needs to be done and would make a big difference.

The other big issue is around utilities and infrastructure, particularly in the greater Dublin area where we do not have a shortage of land. There are some constraints in terms of skilled workers but there has been a slowdown on the commercial side so there is some availability there. In fact, I have heard of workers employed in apartment construction being let go recently and offered other roles because of the slowdown in apartment construction. There is some capacity there but it needs to be improved. A particular issue is water capacity, including waste water and water connections. We are running out of capacity in the greater Dublin area. This is a key challenge and I want to hear from the Government on its plans to address it. The Shannon pipeline project will take years to deliver but immediate actions are needed to increase our water capacity. I cannot for the life of me understand why we do not have, in terms of apartment construction, mandatory rainwater harvesting or grey water systems, which could reduce water consumption by about 30%. That should be in. We should be mandating low-flow fittings to decrease the amount of water being taken.

We also need massive investment in dealing with leaks. We need to address these now to give us the greater capacity we need. Otherwise we will be in a situation very soon whereby not only will we not be able to increase the amount of housing and the amount of affordable housing but also we will run the very serious risk in a few years' time of planning permission or utility connections being refused in the greater Dublin area due to capacity. These are very important serious issues that need to be addressed and which we need to hear about.

In the most recent election, Fianna Fáil promised 50,000 affordable homes. The Minister had it on his social media pages. The Tánaiste, Micheál Martin, told us Fianna Fáil would deliver 50,000 affordable homes. He specifically told us they would be delivered on public land when he was asked to explain how they would be delivered. When Fianna Fáil got into government, we then saw public land banks being sold off at discounted prices. People who had been promised affordable homes on this land were shocked to see prices of up to half a million euro for so-called affordable homes on these sites. In 2020, under the Government we had no affordable purchase homes. In 2021, we had no affordable purchase homes. We had only 323 affordable purchase homes in 2022, only 499 in 2023, and in the first half of this year there were just 166. It was notable that the Minister's press release on this came out quite late on Friday when the figures on social housing delivery were published earlier that day. That says it all.

We in the Social Democrats have very detailed plans on affordable housing delivery and what can be done. The key question that faces all of us is what will be done to address the infrastructural constraints. They will be a key challenge. I have put forward some proposals on what could be done, should be done and needs to be done. There is no excuse on grey water and rainwater harvesting systems. Why not put these types of measures in place? They are urgently needed or we will be in a very serious situation in a number of years with regard to water infrastructure capacity.

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