Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will use my time to focus on a few of the recommendations of the Housing Commission’s report. I note there have been some important policy changes in recent years - the introduction of cost rental housing, the vacant property refurbishment grant and the new land hoarding tax – but we still have a dysfunctional housing market. People are still struggling significantly to access home ownership and rents are far too high. While the fundamental aim has always been to have supply, that is the job of the State and the market in tandem. The task of delivering the right houses in the right location with the right density and social services and for the right time in people’s lives requires far more interconnected planning by the Government. That is the task in the present environment. There are some policy options that align well with our wider aim of creating a thriving, coherent community. These are chiefly in the area of vacancy and dereliction in urban and rural areas alike.

The town centres first model was implemented as part of the previous Government’s housing policy. I am glad it survives on in the current programme for Government. However, it has not been implemented to its full potential. Although much of the work has been done on the pilot and the initial towns in the first phase, town centres first should be a norm in every local authority. There has been much focus in recent years on how difficult it has been to build up social housing construction capacity within local authorities. While that is correct, it has not been acknowledged that tackling vacancy and dereliction at local authority level is something that should be viewed on the same scale. The commission’s report focuses on that issue. In particular, recommendation No. 61 substantially covers proposals on rural vacancy and dereliction.

Recommendation No. 1, mandating Tailte Éireann to introduce and establish a land price register under terms that are similar to those for the property price register, is a small change but one worth pursuing. It would provide much greater transparency to potential developers of sites, particularly about potential capacity issues, wastewater, electricity, etc. Too often, zoning fails to take account of hidden problems at a site and as a development progresses, snags emerge and construction ultimately stalls. Getting that process right initially would speed up timelines and create a better return for the process.

If that supply pipeline is not coming through in sufficient numbers either from the State or private capital, we have to ask if we have exhausted every source of investment for new builds. That is why recommendation No. 20 in the commission’s report is of interest to me. It is one that reflects the Green Party’s proposal for a citizen’s housing fund. The recommendation calls for the examination of a specific private savings fund that can be used to assist in the funding of housing. Given the right impetus by the Government, this could unlock significant new investment into housing delivery while demand is so high and returns are potentially strong. France operates a similar model, the livret A, which acts as a saving scheme for French citizens where the capital is used to reinvest in the national social and housing scheme. I would be grateful if the Minister gave consideration to this proposal in his deliberations.

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