Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senators for a debate I genuinely value. Much good content has recurred throughout the different themes. Before I address the amendments, regarding what Senators Casey and Boyhan said about the section 183 process and the LDA, the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, is working hard to try to resolve that issue. As the Minister of State with responsibility for local authorities, I know the Senators are passionate about this issue. It is important that we work to ensure local authorities do not lose any power. That is an important point for me.I also ask Members to think in the spirit of the previous amendment we accepted in terms of expanding arrangements for our local authorities and through this Bill. Amendments Nos. 6 to 9, inclusive, and amendment No. 18 are connected with the provisions of section 6(2) regarding the provision of affordable dwellings by housing authorities.

For background, section 6(1) of the Bill provides that "A housing authority may make dwellings available for the purpose of sale to eligible applicants under affordable dwelling purchase arrangements and may ... acquire, build or cause to be built, or otherwise provide or facilitate the provision of, dwellings for that purpose." Section 6(2) allows a housing authority, for the purpose of acquiring, providing etc. the affordable dwellings referred to in section 6(1), to enter into arrangements with an approved housing body, the Land Development Agency or public private partnership arrangements.

Some of the amendments have sought to remove the Land Development Agency or public private partnerships, or both, from section 6(2). I do not propose to accept these amendments because I want housing authorities to be able to enter into arrangements with these bodies, when so doing would facilitate the provision of affordable dwellings for sale for eligible purchasers.

Amendment No. 9 seeks to add a condition to arrangements with the Land Development Agency that affordable housing or publicly owned social or cost rental housing constitutes at least 80% of such an arrangement. However, as section 6 deals with the provision of dwellings by a housing authority, which will be "available for the purpose of sale to eligible applicants under affordable dwelling purchase arrangements". All of the dwellings, the subject of such arrangements, will be affordable dwellings. Accordingly, this amendment is not necessary or appropriate.

Section 6 on direct sales agreement provides that a housing authority may enter into a direct sales arrangement with a contractor, approved housing body, AHB, the Land Development Agency, or a public private partnership, with which it has made a section 6 arrangement for the provision of affordable housing.

Under a direct sales agreement, the provider of the housing may sell it directly to eligible applicants, nominated by the housing authority, as opposed to the housing authority having to take units into its ownership before selling them on to eligible purchasers. A similar provision is made available in regards to a developer with whom a local authority is entering a Part 5 agreement for the provision of affordable dwellings, in that the developer can sell the dwellings directly to the purchaser as part of this agreement.

Amendment No. 18 proposes to remove the reference to a public private partnership and the developer with whom the local authorities are entering into a Part 5 agreement, from that provision. This also would not be appropriate.

I absolutely understand the thrust of what Members are trying to do here. We are working with them and have displayed that in terms of the previous amendment. However, I remind Members that Part 9 of the Land Development Agency Bill, of which I know they are aware, sets conditionality in terms of affordability to the effect that 50% must be affordable. When one takes that with a provision for 20%, which we are moving to for Part 5 and the Minister has clearly said it will be well above 50% in terms of the minimum. We have to reflect on that in terms of the conditionality.

Sometimes we look back in time with rose-tinted glasses. I heard Senator Higgins asking why local authorities did not buy all these cheap houses. I was a member of a local authority going through that time, when the State was spending 50% more than it was taking in. We were perverse with debt, as a country and a local authority. Senator Higgins may remember Dublin City Council and Westmeath County Council piloted the mortgage-to-rent scheme, because there were so many distressed individuals in affordable homes at that time who could not pay when the crash happened. There were none of the macroprudential rules or any safety catches we now have built within the system.

When I hear people asserting we should have done all this in the past, I ask them to reflect on the reality and circumstances people were living through at that time. Our local authorities and the country were saturated in debt. We need balance and perspective in the argument.