Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wanted to use the first opportunity I had to call for a debate on the worsening housing crisis. I call on the Leader to ensure that the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government comes to this House as soon as that can be scheduled. I know I will say when he comes here that his plans most recently for a new Land Development Agency will cause only further harm to people's lives and will do nothing to solve the crisis.

The proposal for the Land Development Agency is that just 10% of public land, which is our land, will be available for social housing. Some 30% of that land will be affordable, whatever that means. It might be €50,000 less than the market rate. The really unconscionable part is that some 60% of the houses built on what was our land will be sold at market prices, completely out of the reach of the many. Do not get me wrong, there is merit in a State agency that co-ordinates State land for regeneration and development to drive strategic land assembly, but is there anything this Government will not privatise?

This is not just an ideological difference that we have. The process is also slow and is proved to add up to 18 months to the overall development timeline. I wonder how many people and how many experts have to say that a blind over-reliance on the private market to solve the housing crisis is destroying people's lives and young people's future. I ask for a debate on housing as soon as possible in the Seanad.