Rebecca Moynihan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 2:

In page 6, between lines 33 and 34, to insert the following: "Housing policy: paramount concern

4. Subject to its obligations in relation to the provision of social housing, in the performance of all relevant functions under—

(a) the Housing Acts 1966 to 2021, and

(b) the Planning and Development Acts 2000 to 2020,

the paramount concern of a local authority shall be to secure as best it may that an adequate supply of housing is available for purchase by persons with average annual earnings who have the benefit only of a mortgage agreement entered into in compliance with the macro-prudential policy for residential mortgage lending of the Central Bank.".

The effect of this amendment would be that the houses that are being made available on public land would be affordable in the context of people's incomes as opposed to affordable in the context of being below market value. The a fundamental flaw with the Bill is that there is no definition of "affordability".

On Second Stage, I referred to, for example, O'Devaney Gardens, where some of the affordable units are being made available for more than €400,000. Contrast that with somewhere such as Dun Emer, where genuinely affordable homes are being made available. My big concern in the context of this and of how Part V has operated in some respects is that some developers use construction costs and other associated costs in order to increase prices. If we are making affordable homes available on public land, it is fundamental that they are linked to income and what people can borrow under Central Bank rules.

I do not want to see a situation similar to that, as Senator Bacik highlighted, which occurred at the Irish Glass Bottle site arising because of its location and the desirability of owning a home in the area. The Irish Glass Bottle site is on public land. We talk a great deal about having a social mix and having an income mix in areas but I do not want a situation where homes built on public land in areas where there are higher house prices will be out of reach of people on median incomes.

This amendment goes to the heart of the Bill. It is about linking affordability to income as opposed to the concept of below market value, which the Government seems to think constitutes affordability but which I do not think constitutes affordability. The Government is continuing with the policies that led us into boom-bust housing cycles in the past.Therefore, I urge the Minister of State to accept my amendment and to at least put an obligation, where we develop public lands for affordable housing, to make it affordable for people on median incomes in this country.