Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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Question 97: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the steps he will take to increase the availability of affordable housing and sites to young people; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22296/07]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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The provision of affordable housing is a key priority for the Government and is a key element of the "Paths to home ownership" component of the Government's housing policy statement, Delivering Homes, Sustaining Communities. Significant progress has been made in increasing delivery under the range of affordable housing mechanisms currently in place, including the shared ownership scheme, the 1999 affordable housing scheme, Part V of the Planning and Development Acts 2000 to 2006 and the affordable housing initiative. In total, in excess of 3,200 affordable homes were delivered in 2006, an increase of 20% on the previous year.

In the National Development Plan 2007-13, the Government has committed to the delivery of 40,000 affordable homes over the seven year period of the plan. Under the social partnership agreement, Towards 2016, a total of 17,000 of these are to be delivered over the three years 2007 to 2009. My Department is working closely with local authorities and the Affordable Homes Partnership to achieve the significant increases in delivery required to meet these ambitious targets. While the existing delivery mechanisms will be expected to contribute substantially to achieving the required output, the Affordable Homes Partnership, at my Department's request, has undertaken a study to examine how delivery from these mechanisms can be enhanced and to consider possible additional delivery mechanisms. I expect to receive the final report from this study shortly.

In addition, a low-cost site scheme is in place through which sites can be made available, at discounted prices, primarily to approved applicants on local authority housing lists, where it is considered this is an appropriate mechanism for meeting their accommodation requirements. Decisions on the making available of sites under this scheme are a matter for individual local authorities.

Apart from the various schemes designed to deliver affordable housing, certain ancillary supports are also available to support certain applicants to realise their home ownership aspirations. Specifically, the mortgage allowance and rent subsidy schemes help lower income households access shared ownership and affordable housing by providing an annual subvention towards the repayment costs.

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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The Minister of State is new to his job and I wish him the best of luck with it. I wish to focus on the issue of affordable sites. I made the Minister of State's predecessor aware of a huge difficulty with such sites. Is this Minister of State aware that there is no basis in law for affordable sites? This is causing a huge problem with lending institutions, given the issues of security and clawback on the site. Will the Minister of State give a commitment to address the anomaly in the legislation with regard to affordable sites? He must ensure the system currently in place for affordable houses is also put in place for affordable sites. There is huge demand for affordable sites but the legal anomalies, which are not being addressed by the Department, are prohibiting local authorities from making such sites available.

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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That surprises me. It has not come to my attention.

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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The Minister of State's officials are aware of it. They must not have briefed the Minister on it.

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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Already, through Part V, site subsidy is achieved by virtue of the fact that land components of the cost of homes reflect only the existing use value, that is, the agricultural value of sites. Under the affordable housing initiative, the site subsidy is achieved. The process is in place. Under the 1999 affordable housing scheme, a site subsidy can be provided by the Department where necessary. That subsidy is payable for the Dublin metropolitan area——

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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That is for affordable houses, not affordable sites.

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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——including the city of Dublin and for Dún Laoghaire Rathdown, Fingal, south Dublin and certain parts of Kildare, Meath and Wicklow. In the cities of Cork, Limerick, Waterford and Galway there is a subsidy in place and sites are being taken up. However, I will take up the issue with my officials and report back directly to the Deputy.

Shane McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The affordable housing and sites scheme is fantastic but we have that problem in the parish of Carlanstown. People were approved for affordable sites but then encountered the problem mentioned by Deputy Naughten. It is everybody's ambition to own their own house. I have put forward an idea in County Meath and there have been responses from builders as well as from the people who want to own a house. Will the Minister re-examine the current housing situation? In the counties of Meath, Cavan, Monaghan and Louth there are thousands of houses that cannot be sold. In one estate, there are 40 such houses and nobody can bid on them. Ten people per day join the affordable housing scheme in Meath. Could the Department's officials examine the possibility of matching those people with the houses the builders cannot sell? These people are only short of the affordable €30,000 site with the grant on it. This idea would help the building industry. There are 7,500 empty houses in Meath and 8,000 in Cavan.

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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Obviously, what happened in 2005 and 2006 was unsustainable. There was a frenzy, with people afraid they would not get on the property ladder. They bought property and the amount of finance made available led to price inflation. That could not be sustained. From the point of view of people in the market at present, it is time the Construction Industry Federation learned again how to sell. There will no longer be queues for houses. There is good value for money in the market for individuals.

People talk about interest rates increasing on eight occasions by 0.25%. The last budget provided mortgage interest relief which equated to three of the ECB interest rate increases. Stamp duty was removed for first time house purchasers and income tax was reduced. In the intervening period the affordability of houses has gone from 29.9% to 24%. There is far greater affordability. People who are selling houses must realise that they are now in a different market. They must go out and sell their houses, whether it is to auctioneers or customers, and not wait for the Government. The Government will act in the interests of the consumer in the next budget through the promise of further mortgage reliefs.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I remind Members that there is one minute for a supplementary question and the Minister of State has one minute to respond.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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Dún Laoghaire and the constituency of the Minister, Deputy Gormley, and Deputy Chris Andrews do not have any houses or land. There is a long waiting list for the few affordable houses available. Local authorities are the housing authorities but they cannot perform their function because there is no land on which to build houses. The only way of dealing with that is to consider establishing a housing authority. There is an Affordable Homes Partnership but all it can do, which is causing enormous problems, is approach the owners of large houses who fail to get increased density through a development plan and suggest that they sell their houses for affordable housing, which is a contradiction of the development plan already made by the local authority. We have total confusion.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Deputy must ask a question.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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Will the Minister of State consider how we will deal with the problem as it relates to areas such as Dún Laoghaire and the constituencies of Dublin South-East and Dublin South which do not have land? If one is unfortunate enough to have been born in one of these areas one moves lock, stock and barrel to Counties Meath or Cavan and commutes, which leads to other problems on a daily basis.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Deputy Barrett managed to take two minutes for his one minute slot.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I apologise.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Before I call on the Minister of State to make a final reply I will allow Deputy Naughten to ask a final supplementary question.

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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In his original reply, the Minister of State stated affordable sites are a matter for local authorities. This is where the inherent problem lies. The Department does not take ownership of the primary legislation required in this area. We have a successful affordable housing scheme which the Minister of State spoke about at length. We need a legislative support for the same scheme. My colleague from Meath spoke about what is happening there, in Roscommon and in other counties. Local authorities can take the initiative but not without the Minister of State's support.

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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I will investigate this and will report back directly.

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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The previous Minister stated the same. He sat there for two years.

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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I will give a commitment to Deputy Naughten to investigate and report back to him.

With regard to the point made by Deputy Barrett, I did not have the housing brief in the last Government when Deputy Gilmore was a spokesperson on housing and the environment. One place mentioned because no effort was made to provide housing there was Dún Laoghaire. The funny thing is that when the affordable housing partnership made a suggestion for the possibility and delivery of 100 houses, the local authority in that area refused to zone the land.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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The Minister of State missed the point. It is a planning contradiction.

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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I asked the affordable housing partnership to report back to me on how we can have better delivery mechanisms and how we can better equip ourselves to obtain houses in the areas Deputy Barrett mentioned. The report is due to be given to me this week and we can discuss this matter in further detail at a later time.