Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I was not here for all of this debate but I listened to most of it and I heard Deputy Barry Ward refer to home ownership as giving you a stake in society. My God, I do not know what that says about the thousands of young people the Government has locked out of home ownership. It does not give you a stake in society. It is absolutely classist to suggest that it does and that home ownership somehow makes you more equal than other members of society. That view is espoused by Government Members out of one side of their mouth while, out of the other, we hear a housing policy that means the average age at which a person first buys a house has now risen to 39 years of age. Every year that age goes up is on the Government and its policy. That is a simple fact. I was quite taken aback to hear that. I would be interested to know if that is the view of Government or if it is just an individual view.

The Housing Commission report called for a radical reset of housing policy. The commission did not do this because it wanted to make life harder for the Government. It did so because Government policy makes life harder for ordinary people. I will outline some numbers for the Minister. I am very concerned that the calculator used by the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, was broken and that the Minister, Deputy Browne, seems to have inherited it. The target for social homes to be built in Fingal in 2024 was 705 homes. The expected housing need was 765. For 2025, the target is 758 and the expected need is 765. Those numbers do not add up. In 2024, 858 homes were allocated to people on the social housing waiting list. At the same time, more than 2,000 applications for social housing were received. I am not a mathematician but it is fairly clear that the Minister's targets and figures will do nothing to reduce the social housing list in my constituency. Every year, housing need outstrips the targets, which are not even met.

In Balbriggan, children grow up in their granny's back bedroom while their childhood is spent waiting on secure affordable housing. During the last election campaign, I met people who had applied to the social housing waiting list when their children were born. Those same children are now teenagers. They have never known secure permanent accommodation in their entire lives. The Minister's policies in my constituency will make sure another generation of children grow up on waiting lists. The housing list cannot reduce with these policies. The numbers make that clear. If you look at them, you will see that housing policy is not worth the paper it is printed on.

The Minister keeps telling us about the people who are priced out of buying a home and what he will do for them. Fingal saw the highest housing price growth in Dublin in 2024. In Balbriggan, house prices increased by 21% from December 2019 to December 2024. That is an addition of €65,000 on top of what was already unaffordable. My constituents therefore turn to the Government's disastrous affordable housing policies. Fingal County Council estimates that 770 families will not qualify for a mortgage and need an affordable home in 2025. The Government told the council to build 237. Last year, the council's target was 266 affordable homes. It estimated that 770 people would need them. You do not need a degree in maths; a simple working calculator will show you that 770 does not go into 266 no matter how you try to do it. When the Government delivers these so-called affordable homes for my constituents, it charges them over €500,000. Perhaps it is not just a new calculator but a new dictionary that is needed by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael because €500,000 is in no way affordable and that is the truth.

All of this is evidence that the Housing Commission was right when it called for a radical reset. In my constituency, people do not just want a radical reset in housing but desperately need it. They need it because they are trapped in back bedrooms, their children are growing up in hotels or they are renting as they approach retirement and are terrified for their future. More of the same will not bring the change we need.

In the few seconds remaining to me, I will mention Páirc na mBláthanna, one of the Government's so-called affordable housing schemes. The people buying those houses are already paying astronomical prices for them. Phase 1 has been delayed by 14 months. There are people waiting on phases 2 and 3. I have written to the Minister about this, I have tabled parliamentary questions and I have spoken to him. These people need assurance that he has learned from the many mistakes made in phase 1 and that they will not be repeated in phases 2 and 3.

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