Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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28. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the status of the affordable housing plan. [28829/20]

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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On five occasions in July after he was appointed, the Minister made a very public commitment to announce both the details, targets and regulations of his new affordable housing scheme in September. That month has come and gone and we are very keen to hear as much about the scheme as possible. When he is going to announce it? Will he give us as much information as is possible at this stage about the scheme he is working on?

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I am committed to ensuring that affordable, quality housing solutions are available to all and that is reflected in the programme for Government. I believe in home ownership and I have restated that on many occasions. I will come good on the programmes made in the programme. The programme details a wide range of measures to be brought forward over the lifetime of the Government to firmly put affordability back at the centre of the housing system.

This includes, for example, ensuring our local authorities are central to the delivery of housing solutions, the progression of State-backed affordable housing programmes and the development of a cost rental model that creates affordability for tenants. These are things most of us would agree with.

The Land Development Agency has also been tasked with working with Departments, local authorities, State agencies and other stakeholders, and it is assembling large and strategic sites to deliver social and affordable homes for rent and purchase. This is a key priority of mine and I have engaged extensively with key delivery partners and other stakeholders to foster a broad consensus on issues and, most importantly, potential solutions.

The Department is working to complete this required work to bring forward the detailed plans that will deliver on the programme for Government commitment. As I have said previously, including in the House, I will outline these detailed plans in the autumn, informed by the budget 2021 process. It is a firm commitment in the programme for Government. I believe in affordable housing for purchase and rent. I voted in the Chamber in opposition for this very thing when others opposed it. Working together we can deliver a good and robust affordable purchase and affordable rental scheme.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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We will all judge the Minister by what he does and not what he says, and he would say exactly the same thing if the tables were turned. My question, however, was on when the scheme will be published and whether the Minister could give us more detail than what he has said until now. My concern is that, on the basis of what he has been saying in the media recently, a large portion of what the Minister appears to be working on is not affordable housing. For example, with regard to the comments at the weekend on extending the help-to-buy scheme at its higher rate into next year, while that is of benefit to the people who access it, although according to the Government's own report, 40% of those people who got that very generous subsidy did not need it, the scheme does not make houses more affordable. It locks in unsustainably high prices. I am also very concerned about what seems to be a shift towards a Government backed shared equity loan. This is a secondary Government loan on top of very large and risky banking debt, again locking in unsustainably high prices and not delivering for modest income working families. All I hear with regard to the serviced sites fund is possibly some tinkering around the eligibility criteria rather than the type of increase in capital investment we need. Is the Minister in a position to give us more details? It would be very helpful.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy will appreciate we are just a week from the budget and negotiations and discussions on expenditure for next year are at a crucial stage. I am not, therefore, in a position to give him any further details. This is not by way of being evasive; it is just an issue of timing. There are other measures, including affordability measures, that help people buy homes, one of them being the help-to-buy grant that I have supported in opposition and in government. The Deputy opposed the help-to-buy grant, which more than 19,000 people have used to get on to the housing ladder. Many of these people would not have been able to do so without it. We know there is an affordability issue and supply is key to delivering affordability. This year will be very challenging on supply in the overall housing market. We are looking at between 16,000 and 18,000 completions. As demand grows and supply lessens, there will be acute affordability issues next year and measures will need to be taken to assist people. This is what we are committed to doing.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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The focus has to be on bringing down prices, both to rent and to buy. I have made a number of suggestions to the Minister and his predecessor, including amending the capital advance loan facility, and allowing approved housing bodies to purchase turnkey developments, many of which would be available to purchase now because of the slowdown in Covid-19 private sector supply, to deliver them as affordable homes. It would be much cheaper than those purchased through help-to-buy or shared equity loans. Likewise, increased capital investment is needed by local authorities to build genuinely affordable homes and sell or rent them at cost. We should also stop using public land to sell unaffordable private sector homes. The Oscar Traynor Road site is currently before Dublin City Council and 50% of the homes to be sold are at unaffordable open market prices. That is not the best strategic use of the land in question. Why not fund the local authority and have this site as a fully public scheme, with one third social rental, one third affordable rental and one third genuinely affordable purchase? This is the type of measure that will tackle the crisis.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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We have to work very hard with local authorities to help them to deliver faster on the land they own. I agree with this and I have made and restated that point here. It is a priority for me as Minister. The Deputy mentioned the Oscar Traynor Road site. Four times, that site has gone out for expressions of interest. It is a fine plot of ground that could house hundreds of people. It is frustrating for me when I see these things taking so long.

The Deputy mentioned the serviced sites fund. The fund can be used better and to better effect. The concept behind it is good. It uses State-owned lands to enable people to buy affordable homes, with an equity stake as well within elements of it. We will look at other options. We will look at options around affordable purchase and affordable rental, which has not been mentioned yet this evening. We are well advanced in publishing a national affordable rental plan. This is what is needed. We will have a pilot this year. The Enniskerry Road scheme, which was announced in 2015, is not yet concluded or tenanted. It is about getting on and doing things and helping people to get onto the housing ladder with permanent housing solutions.