Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is great to have the Minister of State, Deputy English, here to respond to this matter which relates to the Minister with responsibility for local government investigating the option of developing an affordable housing scheme in Kinsale on lands that are in the ownership of Cork County Council.

The Minister of State has a connection to Kinsale and will know that it is a thriving town that has been the subject of significant development in the past 15 years. Its population has increased by more than 30%. The town has witnessed major infrastructural development in terms of schools and roads. Other infrastructural and sporting projects have all developed amazingly during the past decade.

I wish to refer to the lack of affordable housing in the town. Work is under way on six private developments in the town. An important social housing scheme comprising 40 houses is under construction, which is a very welcome development. This importance of this €9.7 million project needs to be acknowledged. The remaining portion of land in the ownership of Cork County Council is quite significant. The original plan was that this site could provide anything up to 150 houses but I am not sure if that figure still stands. I understand an affordable housing scheme to be one that can involve both the local authority and private developers building houses at a cheaper rate to facilitate members of the general public accessing housing cheaper and also being able to have ownership of the property.

This land has been in the ownership of the local authority since the early days of millennium. Very little has been done with this land, other than the work carried out in recent months. There is a wonderful opportunity to develop it for the residents of Kinsale. We have nearly everything that is needed to do that bar the will to drive the development of such a project. I would be hopeful that the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government could instruct the local authority to move to ensure the development of the asset of this land portfolio.

It is almost criminal that such land in the ownership of Cork County Council is not being developed. This is a significant issue for the town. We have spoken about land in the ownership of the State and about the housing crisis. We have an affordable housing crisis and a social housing crisis in Kinsale. We need a pathway to ensure the development of this land portfolio, whether it be through a public private partnership or the Department instructing the local authority that it will put the value of the land portfolio against the houses. A mechanism needs to be put in place to ensure the delivery of this site for the construction of affordable housing in Kinsale. This site could accommodate a significant number of houses, be it 50, 60 or 70. I am not sure how many it could accommodate but the land is available. We need the political will to develop it. We need central government to work with the local authority to deliver housing on the remainder of this land portfolio. If that was done it would provide a perfect mix in Kinsale with an affordable housing scheme that, hopefully, we can get off the ground, the social scheme currently being built and the other private developments.

The lack of an affordable housing scheme is the gap in the market that the people are talking about. Such a scheme would assist a household with two incomes who find they are just short of what they need to get mortgage. We need to ensure Cork County Council moves on this project. That is important. We need leadership from central government to ensure we get that movement on this.