Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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5. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the reason for the delay in the sale of affordable housing in Cork city and south County Dublin. [33474/22]

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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Two developments where affordable housing has been significantly delayed are in Boherboy Road in Cork and Kilcarbery Grange in my constituency. The Boherboy Road development was substantially completed at the end of the year but the properties have still not been put on the market for affordable purchasers. The Kilcarbery Grange development was put on the market recently but eligible applicants have been refused mortgages by the banks on the grounds that it is a Government affordable housing scheme. Is the Minister aware of these two problems and can he explain what the delays are and what he is doing to help resolve them?

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for his question. I am happy to advise the Deputy that both Cork City Council and South Dublin County Council will be delivering affordable purchase homes this year. Cork City Council has advised that 117 affordable purchase homes will be delivered in the Boherboy Road in Cork City. The first two phases of this development involving 37 homes will be delivered this year and Cork City Council has advised my Department, and we have been working with it, that this scheme will be advertised for applications to purchase in July, literally within the next few days. Cork City Council has also confirmed that it will deliver a further 36 affordable homes this year at Cluain Chaoin in Tower in two phases via advance purchase arrangements which I have also put in place. This is good because we are delivering more affordable homes on top of what the councils are delivering themselves.

I understand we have approved the national regulations on the scheme of priority and have published these, as the Deputy will see, on affordable purchase. Each local authority has to then adopt them. The scheme of priority in respect of phase 1 of this development is to be presented to Cork City Council on Monday, 11 July 2022 and, if adopted, the scheme will be advertised in July. There are no other impediments to those homes.

South Dublin County Council has advised that it will deliver 16 affordable purchase homes in Kilcarbery Grange, Clondalkin, also by way of an advance purchase arrangement. These units have been allocated to applicants but there was a slight delay in some of the documentation required. There was an issue there and it has been worked out and my senior officials have met the director of services for housing. I understand that they are doing so again tomorrow. That will be resolved. The absence of the national regulations at one stage may have caused some delay but they are now in place. This will allow us to ramp up our delivery of the affordable homes.

Finally, both of these developments are being supported by almost €8 million in funding under the Government's affordable housing fund.

I also advise and mention to the Deputy that the first home scheme to support affordable purchases of new homes in the private market will operate nationwide and will open in July.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister. It is significant that we are talking about very small numbers of homes in both locations and, in fact, in the case of a number of the homes that the Minister cited in Cork, while they may be completed this year, it is unlikely that they will be purchased or occupied until next year. That is, however, a separate matter.

My understanding of the problem that has been experienced with the sale of the property in Kilcarbery in south Dublin is a little more substantive. Individuals had mortgage approval, applied to the local authority and met all of the criteria, but when they went back to the banks, the banks told them that they would not approve mortgage drawdown because they were in an affordable housing scheme. There has been considerable correspondence between elected members, the affected individuals and the local authority. As of today, while we are being told by the local authority that a process is in progress we do not know when that will be resolved.

I would be interested to know, for example, if during the course of the development of the scheme, if the Minister's departmental officials and relevant officials from the Department of Finance been engaging with the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland, BPFI. Could this not have been addressed at that level to ensure that there was no uncertainty? Is the Minister satisfied that in a short period of time the banks will stop refusing people who have otherwise been given mortgage approval for private home purchases?

With respect, again, to Cork, I am trying to understand what the delay was between the substantive completion of the homes and the fact that they will not be put on the market for six or seven months after that period.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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There will be a substantial number of affordable homes delivered this year and even more next year. The pipeline within the Deputy's own constituency, in South Dublin County Council, is very strong. We are adding to that through the advance purchase arrangements. One can look at Rathcoole where there are 100 affordable homes, in Clonburris there are 184 and in Killinarden there are 372. This is the start of it.

The issue that obtained specifically in Kilcarbery is being resolved. We have other affordable purchase homes, for argument's sake, in Lusk in north County Dublin with which there has been no issue with mortgage lenders. The scheme of priorities was important together with the conveyancing piece, how the properties would be conveyed and the issue of the State equity which is also being worked through. As the Deputy knows the local authority takes this equity on behalf of the State in respect of the subsidy for the reduction in price. I am very confident that this is being resolved right now and that there should not be any inordinate delays in order to be able to move on with these homes.

Importantly, this means that the matter is resolved into the future. It is a new scheme. The Department has engaged with the BPFI. A further meeting will take place tomorrow that should move Kilcarbery on.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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With respect to the pipeline in my own constituency, the pipeline of affordable homes is not very strong. It is anaemic to say the least. There will not be 100 affordable homes in Rathcoole because Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil councillors voted to de-zone the land. We may get some social housing in there, but greatly reduced from what was originally planned.

Likewise, while we have just approved a Part 8 decision in Clondalkin for much-needed affordable homes, there will only be about 50 there and Kilcarbery will only end up with about 50 or so houses.

In my constituency, therefore, we are not even going to reach a couple of hundred houses over the next few years and in the local authority area perhaps double that figure. That is in a constituency that needs thousands of affordable homes over the lifetime of this Government and will not get those.

To be clear, is the Minister saying there have been affordable home purchases where mortgages have been drawn down from private banks, for example, in north County Dublin? What is the understanding of the Minister as to why banks were willing to lend to these people but not to others? The allocation scheme for south Dublin has been in place for some time. My understanding from the correspondence I have seen from the banks is that the issue was not something particular to south Dublin but concern about the operation of the scheme and the level of equity of the State. If the Minister has more information I would welcome him sharing it.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Aside from what will be delivered through the first home shared equity scheme in South Dublin County Council there are more than 1,100 affordable homes in the pipeline between now and 2026. We will have thousands more through the first home shared equity scheme that will launch in July. It will give first-time buyers and those on the fresh start principle the opportunity and choice to be able to buy homes in private estates, with the State stepping in to help to bridge the affordability gap by taking equity.

With regard to the issue that arose in Kilcarbery there were issues previously in Lusk. They have been resolved. I will be very straight with the Deputy on this. It is a new scheme of priorities. The regulations were published. Some work had to be done with the banks on the conveyancing side. This has been resolved. I understand there will be a meeting today or tomorrow on this. The good thing is that once these have been resolved, which they have been, they will be resolved for every scheme in future. It is the clarity that was needed. The Department has engaged with the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland on it and we should be able to see these homes move forward and people move into them.