Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Senators have made some interesting points. I take on board the valid point made by Senator Casey in respect of situations where there is no public land. I hope that the Minister of State hears the following and that we can address it on Report Stage. There are different expectations in respect of how we use public land versus the partnership element. Therefore, I take on board the fact that there are situations where there may not be public land and no partnership.

I have also heard that this section on local authorities entering into arrangements for affordable housing might need real specifics on the kinds of arrangements that they enter into in general, and the kinds of arrangements that they enter into when it involves public land. The concern is that there has been, and there is, a very deeply imbedded practice that assumes that this must be done through a public private partnership.

A concern has been expressed about the Land Development Agency. It is not really with the agency per se. It is with the concern or the fear the agency will, in itself, have those same practices. In addition, people want to know, if we are dealing with public land through the Land Development Agency through a local authority, why we would give huge cohorts of that away. My reasonable amendment asked why would we give more than 20% of that to profit.

When we talk about a social mix we must be very clear that most people in Ireland earn well below the median income. Members will have heard that later amendments seek to peg affordability to the average income but I would like to pin it more to the median income. Please bear in mind that, literally, 50% of the population earns less than the median income.

In terms of a mix, what if one has 80%, as I have outlined in these amendments, publicly-owned social housing or cost-rental housing? As Senator Boyhan described, one can have architects. I mean social cost-rental is not simply for one category. Cost-rental or affordable housing can be for the whole spectrum of incomes and for anybody in society.

With respect, I suggest that an 80% affordable, cost-rental and social housing is a mix of tenure and the kind of mixed community that we can have. Most importantly, it is a mixed community that is sustainable because when 30%, 40%, 50%, 60% or 80% of a housing development is simply left to market and investors one does not get a mixture. What one gets is 80% controlled by one or two companies. One gets a private rental set at a particular price-point. One does not get a mix and one has no guarantees as to what happens or that there will be a sustainable mix into the future.

These amendments are about exercising as much control as we can, which is a lot more control than we chose to exercise in the past. We have a lot of control and power. Therefore, we must exercise that power and control to achieve the goals that we all have talked about of having mixed tenure communities and different kinds of housing in order to reflect a diverse society, and ensure people can plan for the long term. It is depressing for people when, for example, there are a few houses in an estate or a huge proportion of an apartment building that are a speculative asset. Such situations hollow out communities when we let that happen. The fact is that our public private partnerships have done that too often.

We talk about local authorities.It is going to be part of this Bill as I understand it. Unfortunately that will happen when it goes to the Dáil so it is difficult for us to amend it but one of the most damaging public private partnerships has been that idea of pushing local authorities to lease when they wanted to buy and build. Those leasing arrangements really pulled the rug out and closed off options. I remember it and I remember that local authorities were expressly blocked. We are hearing about blocking but we must also consider putting constraints around the kinds of public private partnerships and when we want to have conditionalities and put caveats on them. I hope that we might all come back and agree explicit caveats on public land on Report Stage. We are doing that in the context that other public options have sometimes been blocked in the past. We know that local authorities and sometimes local authority executives have pushed for a public private partnership option at a time when local authority members would have preferred a public option. I am conscious that this option has been pushed heavily in the past and it has had some positive outcomes, as well as a lot of negative and suboptimal outcomes that could have been better.

That is why I am trying to tweak this and improve it a little bit. I take on board the point on where there is no public land but in relation to public land, these amendments should stand. I urge the Minister of State to support them or to bring forward his own version of conditionality on Report Stage.