Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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2. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government his plans to introduce a scheme for genuinely affordable rental and purchase housing in 2018; and the funding allocated and targets for units to be delivered. [52319/17]

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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Thousands of working families and individuals are caught in an affordability trap whereby they can afford neither to rent nor to purchase a home. I have asked on a number of occasions for the Government to outline its definitions of affordable rental and affordable purchase; its targets in this regard for 2018; and the timeline for introducing an affordable housing scheme. Despite all the spin and announcements, we are still not getting answers to these very simple questions so I hope the Minister will oblige me in this regard this morning.

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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The Government acknowledges the affordability pressures faced by households with low to moderate incomes in particular parts of the country. It is precisely for that reason that Rebuilding Ireland has prioritised the supply of new homes to meet current and pent-up demand as well as helping to moderate house prices and rents. For households in the lowest income brackets, I am prioritising the social housing programme, with an additional capital allocation of €500 million over and above the €5.35 billion already committed under Rebuilding Ireland, to increase the overall delivery to 50,000 social housing homes by 2021. These households can also avail of other supports such as the housing assistance payment scheme.

The Government has also put in place a range of measures to make housing more affordable. These include planning reforms, infrastructure funding to get key sites moving, the introduction of rent pressure zones, and mixed-tenure housing projects on publicly-owned land with two major sites in Dublin, encompassing some 1,500 new homes, progressing through procurement.

Based on all relevant indicators, it is clear that the supply-based measures are having a positive impact. Notwithstanding this, further measures are being developed, including with regard to apartment development viability. I am also considering the wider issue of housing affordability as part of the targeted review of Rebuilding Ireland,including the deployment of the funding of €25 million announced in budget 2018 to unlock local authority-owned lands specifically for affordable housing. I expect to be making a further announcement on this shortly.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister's answer is truly remarkable. While I know that he has only been in office for six months, I am really beginning to question whether or not he understands the extent of this particular issue and the extent of the pressures that people are under. According to every indicator, rents and house prices are increasing quarter on quarter and year on year. We are talking about the housing needs of working families on incomes somewhere between €35,000 and €75,000 a year. As I keep telling the Minister, supply alone will not resolve the problem without guarantees of affordability. The difficulty is that the measures that the Minister has just outlined combine to a total of €1.1 billion over three years to assist private sector delivery, with no guarantee of affordability. The scheme that the Minister has been promising to announce for a number of weeks now pledges approximately €25 million as compared to €1.1 billion. I again ask the questions and if the Minister does not have the answers then I ask that he be honest and tell us that. What is the Minister's definition of affordable rental? What is his definition of affordable sale? What are his targets for the delivery of those two streams of affordable housing for 2018? When will he introduce the necessary legislation to give effect to the affordable housing scheme that he promised both in the programme for Government and in Rebuilding Ireland?

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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I was quite clear about this both in my answer and in committee. We are about to announce an affordability scheme and it is being designed at the moment. I have met with bodies like Ó Cualann which have carried out affordability projects through running co-operative housing with local authorities, so as to see how we can draw up our own affordability scheme criteria. It is important to acknowledge here that we need to get the criteria right for accessing affordable homes. We are bringing back affordability. It had been stood down as part of social and affordable housing and we are now bringing it back. The most important thing is that the houses get built, and when they are built we will then have a scheme in place for every local authority to access. The allocation of €25 million announced in the budget is for 2018 and 2019 and will deliver at least 650 affordable homes using local authority sites. That is but the minimum of what we expect to deliver from that €25 million. I ask the Deputy to look at the Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund, LIHAF, funding to date. Of the €200 million allocated under LIHAF 1, 30% of the sites involved will include affordability schemes that can be accessed under the new affordability criteria scheme when it is announced. LIHAF 2 will have the same provisions available to it.

With further regard to other sites, we do not limit local authorities in making arrangements for particular sites. If we look at what is going to be happening at O'Devaney Gardens, for example, additional affordability will be in place there, while an additional 15% of affordable housing is going to go up on the Poolbeg site. All these new homes will be affordable homes accessed by the new scheme which is currently being designed. The most important thing is that the homes are getting built. I hope to announce in the coming weeks the affordability scheme and the actual criteria for how it can be accessed. As I said before in committee, we are considering things like income limits as ways of deciding who would be eligible to get access for that scheme..

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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What we now know, then, is that 300 affordable homes will possibly be available next year and a further 300 possibly available the year after.

Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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A possible 300.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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That is remarkable. Fine Gael has been in government for a year and a half. It signed a programme for Government 18 months ago that promised a cost-rental and an affordable housing scheme. I have no idea what the Minister means when he says that the LIHAF developments will include affordability. The last time he answered that question he told us that in Dublin, for example, that could mean €320,000, which is clearly not affordable by any measure. While I look forward to the Minister's announcement, Government needs to come forward and say that there is going to be a stream of rental accommodation and a stream of purchase accommodation that is accessible to people on incomes between €35,000 and approximately €75,000 for couples. The Minister needs to tell us exactly how many of those units will be delivered next year and the year after. If he comes back in two or three weeks' time to tell us that this figure amounts to 300 units based on the €25 million, €15 million of which will be spent next year, then that will be a mark of abject failure on his part. Once again he will have let down those working families who are in desperate need of affordable accommodation.

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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I ask Deputy Ó Broin not to deliberately misinterpret what I just said. What I said was that the €25 million that was secured from budget 2018 and 2019 would deliver a minimum of 650 homes. I also said that with regard to other sites, Poolbeg, for example, we will have an additional 15% of affordable units which will deliver approximately 350 homes.

There is also an increase in O'Devaney Gardens. A number of schemes under LIHAF 1 will have affordability carve-outs in the affordable-to-rent and affordable-to-buy areas.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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All we are asking is for the Minister to tell us the prices and the numbers. It is very simple.

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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The income criteria that will allow people to access these homes are being worked out in the context of the affordability scheme I am going to announce. We know that in 70% of LIHAF sites, two-bedroom and three-bedroom homes will come in under €320,000. The vast majority of them will come in under €300,000.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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I do not think €300,000 is affordable.

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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I ask the Deputy not to interrupt me. Of course affordability depends on a person's income. We intend to bring back the affordability measures that existed previously in the context of social and affordable housing. We will bring in a scheme for the cohort of people who are not eligible for social housing because their incomes are just above the limits and who cannot afford to buy because of the current rates of property price increases. I will announce the details of this affordability scheme very shortly.