Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. I really hope that the Bill is going to do what it says on the tin. I have listened to what the Minister has had to say and what other speakers have had to say. It is tremendously important legislation. It is not an easy portfolio and notwithstanding things that have been said in this House we have actually made a lot of progress in housing. That is not the popular thing, however. It amused me that the last speaker stood up and said at the very beginning that one knows when one is in trouble when the others are throwing mud, and then proceeded to spend the vast majority of her time on her feet throwing mud at other people, including Senator Byrne, in what was an entirely unjustified statement.

Putting that aside, and in terms of what the Minister said earlier, I particularly want to focus on two aspects of it, the first being affordability. Coming as I do from Dún Laoghaire I am particularly concerned about the differentiation of Dún Laoghaire and Dublin city with regard to the affordability of houses there. People who live in, were born in and grew up in Dún Laoghaire want to, as much as any person in any other part of the country, live close to where they are from, close to their parents and close to their support structures. They do not earn any more money than anybody else does. Jobs, regrettably, do not pay more money in Dún Laoghaire than jobs in Cahersiveen or Clifden or anywhere else. I understand why there is a differentiation, but there is a fundamental unfairness in saying that affordability is somehow at a higher level in Dún Laoghaire than it is elsewhere.

I understand that land costs more and property costs more in Dún Laoghaire. As someone who is trying to buy a house there at the moment I acutely understand this difficulty. As a State we should be stepping in to level the playing field in that area, and say to people that we recognise they want to live where they are from and that we do not believe things should be more expensive for them than in other parts of the country just because they come from that area. In that regard, the State needs to step in to bridge the gap in land prices between houses, be they in Shankill, Blackrock, Foxrock or Dún Laoghaire and houses in Clonmel or Portlaoise, or anywhere else in the country. I have a difficulty with that aspect of the Bill, but I recognise the difficulties that arise with it.

The second aspect I will focus on relates to something the Minister said at the outset of his speech about being in favour of home ownership. This is tremendously important for a number of reasons. It is not just because we aspire to own our own homes, and I have heard other Senators speaking about this: of course we do. Everybody does. There is an ingrained thing in the psyche of Ireland about land ownership, but really we are talking about home ownership here. I do not know if we still do have it, but for most of my lifetime Ireland has had the highest rates of owner-occupiers of homes in Europe. There is a long-standing tradition of people owning the homes they live in. People want that and I understand it. It is expensive and undoubtedly for 99.9% of people it is the most money they will ever spend on anything in their lives. It is the greatest liability people will have in their lives. People chain themselves to a mortgage for all of their working lives to achieve it, but yet people want to do that. Beyond that, it is very important to know that home ownership gives people a stake in society.

After the financial crash we saw issues. I became the owner of a small one-bedroom apartment before the crash, regrettably, and for a very long time it was in negative equity, as many of my generation were. It still is not worth what I paid for it. People suffered disproportionately, relative to other generations, at the time of that crash. Before that we had a situation where people wanted to own property and to a large extent achieved that. After the crash, people could not do that. As a result, along with all of the other disaffection in society, people no longer had a stake. They no longer were part of society, and therefore they had no buy-in into Ireland and what Ireland brings.

Sometimes we forget what a fantastic country we have, the stability we have, the functions we have and the services we have. God knows it is not perfect but one can, for the most part, enjoy a safe and fruitful life in Ireland. That is true for the vast majority of citizens. Of course, there are people who fall through the net and we desperately need to catch those people. Home ownership is one of the ways to do that. It brings those people into the fold. It brings them in on a par with their colleagues who can afford to buy houses. This is at the core of affordability of housing. It allows people to be included, allowing them to come with the wave and the tide that raises all boats, which we are forever talking about. It allows people to be part of that movement. To exclude them is to exclude them, on one level, from society. It is not going to be possible for everyone, and of course there is substantial work to be done on the provision of social housing. That has been ramped up since the crash. While never enough, we have improved. This is laudable. This Bill must deliver for those people, and allow all of the people who want to and who possibly can to become part of a home-owning generation, a part of society that contributes and receives - most importantly - from that society. Without it we are excluding people who do not need to be excluded.