Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy English, to the House.

We all understand adequate housing is one of the most basic human needs and, consequently, one of the most important human rights. Last week, thejournal.iepublished an in-depth analysis on whether it was cheaper to pay rent or get a mortgage in the State. The article brought up some stark realisations. In Dublin 7, where there is a mix of housing options, the average monthly repayment on a mortgage for a one-bedroom accommodation is €782. However, to rent a similar property, tenants will pay €1,432, an 83% difference. A two-bedroom home in Kildare will have a mortgage repayment of €534 a month, while rent prices are 90% higher at €1,015 for the same type of property. The average monthly repayment on a mortgage for a three-bedroom house in Cork city is €914 with corresponding rents running 32% higher at €1,203.

In every instance and every scenario, renting was at an inflated cost to paying a mortgage. Accordingly, the likelihood for first-time buyers and those seeking affordable housing is they will be caught in the rental trap. Paying bloated rents as a portion of one’s income is particularly prevalent in urban centres where many young people have relocated for work in recent years. Despite the initiation of rent pressure zones, there are major issues with the increase caps being simply ignored or landlords using different loopholes in terms of suggesting they are refurbishing properties to justify the increases. Has the Government any proposals to deal with this?

The Government has previously committed to the notion of an affordable rental scheme in 2014, yet it remains a notion as no detail has been announced. All the Minister committed to was that a pilot would be started at some undefined point. Will the Minister of State expand on that? Rental prices have spiralled out of control and will only spiral further if action is not taken soon. Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council has been consulted on such a scheme. Will the Minister of State give further details about this?

In the Government’s proposals for the sites identified for affordable housing, no building has taken place yet. Some do not even have planning permission. The full details of the affordable housing programmes have yet to be developed. It is becoming abundantly clear these housing units will not be delivered in 2018. When does the Minister foresee these units will actually be ready to be delivered?

Regarding the proposals around a help-to-buy scheme, in instances where it is subject to expert scrutiny it has been proved to simply increase house prices rather than alleviate the cost. Incentivising the private sector to meet affordable housing demand through subsidies, tax breaks and low-cost loans just does not work. I am concerned the council loan scheme proposals allowing prospective buyers to breach Central Bank rules will lead to them buying overpriced homes. While the 2% rate will be of benefit to some, in reality it does little to improve affordability. It can simply tie people to mortgages on bloated housing prices without tackling the realities that the prices are bloated in the first place.

Sinn Féin has been articulating a need for affordable housing for some time now. We would deliver 4,500 affordable homes in year 1 and 9,000 affordable homes in year 2 with an appropriate mixture of rental and purchase homes determined by local housing needs. These homes would be delivered as part of mixed-tenure and mixed-income estates on public land. The proposals were recently detailed in a Dáil motion. I commend Deputy Eoin Ó Broin for his work on these proposals. Will the Minister of State reconsider the steps taken by the Government to provide affordable housing and propose more robust schemes which will truly make a house affordable for first-time buyers?