Caít Keane (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Labour Party for proposing the motion. It is important we keep it on the agenda. Housing remains a key priority for the Government and for the Minister of State, Deputy Coffey, which I am sure he will say himself. The supply of affordable houses in areas where they are needed is also a key objective. The Government has been reformist in its housing proposals with the Construction 2020 strategy and the introduction of legislation that deals with three major strands of housing policy. The legislation provides a legislative basis for the housing assistance payment. We all know how it worked initially. It has been introduced, I can see it working already and it is welcome. The legislation also provides for the new tenant purchase scheme for local authorities and the reform process for the termination of local authority tenancies. This important housing legislation has brought one of the most radical reforms of public housing support, which has been badly needed for decades.

It has long been accepted that the rent supplement system was not fit for purpose and it has changed. Construction 2020, which was announced last year, contains 75 initiatives. For many reasons, including the economic climate, one cannot implement all the initiatives in a day and the strategy has been in place for less than a year. The 75 initiatives will invigorate the construction sector and meet some of the demand in the housing sector where there is a major shortfall, particularly in the Dublin area. Last May, the Government announced an additional investment of €200 million. It came from a very narrow purse that had not been available heretofore. Some €50 million was announced for social housing and €35 million for disabled housing adaptation. As well as all the negatives, we must reiterate the positive measures, which have all happened in one year.

Many developers are in NAMA and are eager and waiting to get going. They did not go into NAMA by their own volition. We are trying to get them there because they are anxious and eager to start building. Some 35,000 units of social housing will be supplied by 2020, as the Minister said on a previous occasion. The needs of a further 75,000 households will be met through the housing assistance payment and the rental accommodation scheme and the Government has, on more than one occasion, enunciated its plan for how to accommodate the 90,000 households on the waiting list. The Minister might comment on the Dublin social housing delivery task force and the plans to deal with the 31,000 households that are on the waiting lists of the four Dublin local authorities and the national plan to supply the 35,000 social housing units. In Dublin, 655 vacant units were identified. We are working through them by the month using the refurbishment grant and 245 of them have been put back in action while the remaining 410 units will be returned to the supply over the coming months.

That is also to be welcomed. The €2.2 billion was announced in budget 2015 to kick-start that project. Again all this costs money. We are bound by EU rules and have to meet our development needs in other areas also. Supplying 35,000 units by 2020 will cost €3.8 billion and we have to ensure we do that strategically.

Senator Hayden spoke about rent caps, which have been introduced in other countries. One has introduced rent caps in areas particularly where there is huge supply and one will not end up with a monopoly situation so that is one thing. The Minister of State will probably comment on that. It brings its problems as well as its values. In recent months the average rent increased by more than 4.8% and it has increased greatly in Dublin in particular. This is down to lack of supply and until that lack of supply is addressed, rents will increase because developers and private landowners will have a monopoly.

New Central Bank regulations will apply a 90% loan to value limit for first-time buyers. We need to keep an eye on that to ensure that people who want to buy can buy and that we do not have more people added to the housing lists through no fault of their own. When I bought my house there was a limit of 2.5 times earnings. It was unsustainable to have money thrown around like confetti when people seeking money for a house were offered money for a car as well. We do not want to go back to that housing model that was predicated on ever-rising house prices.

Are ten minutes gone already?