Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

1. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the targets for the delivery of cost rental and affordable purchase homes by local authorities, approved housing bodies and the Land Development Agency under the Government's new housing plan from 2025 to 2030. [66119/25]

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

There were many omissions in the Minister's ill-fated housing plan launched only a matter of weeks ago but one that was particularly astonishing is the removal of targets, either across the life cycle of the plan or, indeed, on an annual basis, for cost-rental and affordable purchase homes delivered by local authorities, approved housing bodies, AHBs, and the Land Development Agency, LDA. Can the Minister explain why these targets that were in his predecessor's plan were removed and does that mean he has abandoned targets or he is simply not willing to share them with us?

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I thank the Deputy for this important question around targets for the delivery of cost-rental and affordable purchase homes by local authorities, approved housing bodies and the LDA under the Government's new housing plan.

Affordability and the chance to own a home is at the heart of Government's housing policy, as embodied within the new housing plan, Delivering Homes, Building Communities 2025-2030. Government is investing an unprecedented level of funding to support new housing delivery, which will underpin the new starter homes programme, delivering an average of 15,000 affordable housing supports annually to 2030.

To further drive the delivery of affordable housing under the plan, local authorities will shortly commence the preparation of new housing delivery action plans. It is intended that the plans will set out how the starter homes programme will be implemented in each area, including the full suite of affordable housing supports to be provided and taking account of local and national affordability needs. They should be responsive to the housing system landscape in each area, as it is evident that starter homes supports needs and requirements vary by location.

The preparation of housing delivery action plans for starter homes will be undertaken by local authorities, in close collaboration with their delivery partners, including the LDA, and approved housing bodies. Each local authority's starter homes programme, as outlined in its housing delivery action plan, will be informed by the housing needs and demand assessment framework, which will assist in identifying and quantifying new housing need with affordability constraint within their administrative area. Quarterly housing delivery reports will continue to be published on the Department's website, tracking the progress of affordable delivery output in each local authority area. The delivery of 300,000 homes and 15,000 starter homes supports, over the lifetime of the plan, is ambitious but it is achievable.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I would like the House to note that the Minister, of course, completely avoided the question and instead gave what can only be described as an Orwellian response to a simple question.

There is no new starter home programme. What the Government has done is it has taken a bunch of schemes that existed under the previous Government's plan and, indeed, its predecessor, it has bundled them all up and it has added them into a global figure.

The reason it is important, in particular, that there are targets for the delivery of cost rental and affordable purchase is the Minister funds them. He sets the targets for local authorities, AHBs and the LDA, directly and indirectly, to deliver those homes. Of course, as we know, last year the cost-rental targets were missed by a factor of 15% and the Minister's affordable purchase target was missed by a staggering 61%.

On top of that, of course, increasingly these homes are not affordable. Right across Dublin, for example, the full price of a so-called "affordable home" delivered under the Minister's affordable purchase scheme, if you want to own the home outright, is up to €500,000. In nobody's calculations is that affordable.

Similarly, we are now seeing cost rents coming in as high as €19,000 a month for a three-bedroom house, and €17,000 a month for a two-bedroom unit. A growing number of people who are not eligible for social housing are excluded from the Minister's schemes. Can I ask again why he has not included a specific target for cost rental and affordable purchase? Has he ditched the target or is he just hiding it from us?

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

We have targets of 300,000 new homes overall, including 15,000 affordable homes annually, and each local authority is now working on their housing delivery action plans. They are looking at and working with their partners as well to ensure they can meet the Government's target of delivering homes. That is what we are doing and that is how we will deliver the homes.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

If that is the case, why would the Minister not say he has a target for new-build social homes? Again, this is a scheme that he funds and a scheme that local authorities and approved housing bodies deliver, some in conjunction with the Land Development Agency. It makes no sense to say that we do not need targets for cost rental and affordable purchase but we do for social housing. Again, it is a very simple question. There were clear targets for next year, some of which the Minister shared with us in the committee only a matter of months ago. My question, which the Minister has not answered, is very simple. Why is there no target for cost rental over the six years? Why is there no target for affordable purchase over the six years? Why is the Minister not accepting that in addition to not producing enough of these homes, increasingly they are unaffordable? Targets are important. They are particularly important for Government schemes funded by the Minister's Department. It allows him to plan, to programme and to be held to account. It sounds like the Minister has effectively abandoned the very meagre targets for cost rental and affordable purchase schemes that his predecessor had in his plan because this Minister knows that cannot be met, and rather than be embarrassed by his failure, he is simply ditching the targets altogether. Frankly, that is not good enough.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

We have not abandoned it. We have our key target of 300,000 new homes and 15,000 affordable homes. What we have learned over the last number of years is that we need to be flexible in figuring out exactly how we are going to manage to deliver the affordable homes that people need across this country. We do have a plan, which is clearly set out and was launched only very recently, with the methods and the means by which we are going to deliver social homes and affordable homes and increase the activity of private homes that also need to be delivered. Without the private investment to deliver private homes, we are never going to solve the housing crisis because we are never going to be able to deliver enough homes. The supply of homes is what is crucial here. We have our target of 15,000 affordable homes annually. This is what we are working towards as we go through each local authority and as we look at the national landscape, for how we can best and most quickly deliver that. Rather than getting obsessed about the minutiae of small targets, we look at how we can unleash the deliverability of homes. My purpose and my aim is to ensure that people can get access to a home.