Séamus McGrath (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Minister of State for facilitating this debate. Obviously, I roundly welcome the Housing Finance Agency (Amendment) Bill 2025. It sets out to do something very simple which is to increase the statutory borrowing limit for the Housing Finance Agency, which is critically important, from €12 billion to €13.5 billion. Last year, in 2024, that limit was increased from €10 billion to €12 billion. This reflects the scale of lending that is taking place by the Housing Finance Agency but also the various initiatives the Government is supporting to try to deliver additional housing across the sectors, through the local authorities and the approved housing bodies and under the remit of the Housing Finance Agency. Higher education institutions are also a very important element.

It must be noted that this increase is an interim measure. It is intended it will go further in the short term as the national development plan is fully teased out and we have the new housing plan with additional housing targets and so on. That is really positive. It shows real intent on the Government’s part in terms of its housing delivery. Of course the Housing Finance Agency is a plc under the aegis of the Minister for public expenditure but it does reflect the scale of activity the Government is undertaking and that is very positive.

The increase in the statutory borrowing limit will allow for an additional 5,650 homes, according to the Housing Finance Agency. That is very welcome. In the first six months of this year alone, it has issued loans to the value of €709 million which also shows the scale of activity. In 2024 €1.3 billion was issued by the Housing Finance Agency, which supported over 4,000 homes. This is critically important work. It is a critically important organisation in this State. What the Bill seeks to do is something that absolutely has to happen and I am glad there is support across the floor for it.

The new housing plan is coming. The budget set aside funding of €2.9 billion to help deliver over 10,200 social units, which is critically important. There is €1.2 billion for starter homes which, as we know, is a combination of affordable purchase, help-to-buy homes, first home schemes and the vacant homes too. There is a significant commitment there by the Government. Over €200 million has been provided for the housing activation office, which was set up to try to unblock some of the key barriers in developments and particularly large-scale developments, which I welcome. I very much welcome that over €300 million is for the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund which will have a focus on housing delivery.

I would like to see local authorities and approved housing bodies play an even greater role in delivering housing. We often hear from the Opposition that what is needed is public housing - social housing, affordable purchase housing, cost-rental housing – and I support that. Many of us would support that. They are working extremely hard. They are doing what they can and are working to capacity. It is our job in government to try to ensure we can increase that capacity and increase their output on State land, land they require to build and so on.

Funding is being made available for the acquisition of that land as well, which is critically important. I had a conversation recently with one of my own local authorities and a new initiative is being undertaken relating to stage payments being made available so that developments can get under way. This will be to a private developer, but ultimately, stage payments are being made available for public housing and that helps with the financial issues that many developers are facing.

We have to have a range of solutions. We all want to increase public housing. That is critically important but nobody can tell us that alone will solve the housing situation. We have to use all levers at our disposal and we have to try to increase housing supply across the board in every way.

I want to focus on affordable purchase housing because I have strongly tried to argue for it since I was elected. There is growing cohort of people who are falling between the stools in terms of the various supports offered from the State. If individuals or families who do not qualify for social housing, many of them are not also in a position to benefit from the affordable housing scheme. It is critically important that we bring as many of those into the net as possible. In some cases, it is because there simply is not enough affordable housing made available and that is an issue across the country. In other cases, however, it is because their borrowing capacity does not allow them to secure a mortgage that will allow them purchase a home under an affordable housing scheme. There is a growing gap and the cohort affected is increasing in number. As a Government, we have to try to address that because we cannot leave a large cohort of people behind us. That is something I will strongly urge Government to focus on increasingly over the coming months, particularly as part of the new housing plan.

This funding that we are approving here in terms of the statutory borrowing limit relates to new properties and new builds, and that is critically important. As Deputy Lawless mentioned earlier, however, the vacancy issue across this country is quite significant. There is still a lot more scope and a lot more work that can be done on vacant and derelict housing across the country. We have a carrot in place in the form of the vacant homes grant. That has been used significantly, with over 10,000 approvals since its inception. They are over 10,000 properties that have been previously vacant for more than two years and they are now being brought back into use. That is very welcome, but we need to do more on that because there is a significant number of vacant properties. Various figures are put out but we know it is a large number. We have to do everything within our power to bring as many of them back into use as possible. We need an all-out campaign on vacant and derelict properties in our towns and villages. Not only would this help with the housing crisis; it would also help in improving the public realm in our towns and villages by removing vacancy and dereliction. There are so many benefits to focus on. From an environmental point of view, restoring an older property where there are currently services and infrastructure in place makes eminent senses so we really have to try and focus on this in every way possible.

I welcome the derelict property tax that was introduced in the budget. I am disappointed that it seems to be taking a long time for it to get implemented. I hope there could be greater urgency on that and that is something that the Government can examine as it is progressing because we have to apply as much urgency as possible to the vacancy issue across the country.

Finally, I want to mention the national development plan. It is a very ambitious plan. It is focusing heavily on housing and that is right and proper. In terms of trying to stimulate housing activity, much of the capital investment will be in areas that are designed to help boost housing supply effectively such as investment in the energy grid, water, and wastewater services, which are critical, transportation linkages and connectivity, which is also vitally important, public transport, active travel links, etc. It is very much focused on delivering additional housing and that is how it should be. With over €275 billion to be allocated between now and 2035 under the revised national development plan, it is very much with a view to getting housing delivered much sooner. Of course, we have record investment in housing itself, which is also very significant. Between now and 2030, over €102 billion will be allocated on the infrastructural front. The budget is heavily focused on capital expenditure, trying to secure our future and trying to put our economy on a sustainable footing going forward so that we can address our most pressing issue, which, as we all agree in this House, is the housing shortage. It is something that we have to do, and use every lever within our power to try to ensure that we make progress on that on a daily basis.

I commend this important Bill. I welcome the fact that it is before us here this evening. I welcome the opportunity to say a few words in relation to it. As I said earlier, this is only an interim measure. The borrowing limit will need to increase in the near future which is a great reflection on the amount of activity that is taking place.

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