Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 4:

In page 8, between lines 12 and 13, to insert the following: “(b) arrangements with co-operatives, community housing trusts and other not for profit bodies.”.

Section 6 is about the provision of dwellings by housing authorities. It states:

A housing authority may make dwellings available for the purpose of sale to eligible applicants under affordable dwelling purchase arrangements and may, in accordance with the Housing Acts and regulations made under any of those Acts, acquire, build or cause to be built, or otherwise provide or facilitate the provision of, dwellings for that purpose.

We are seeking to amend section 6(2), which states: "A housing authority may, for the purposes of subsection (1), enter into ... arrangements". We would like to see arrangements with co-operatives, community housing trusts and other not-for-profit bodies included there. Essentially, we are looking to expand the number of organisations that can deliver housing under the scheme in order to ensure the best opportunity to deliver the maximum number of units possible.

We have great local authorities. Many of us have been elected at local authority level. We also have great approved housing bodies and other entities, all of which have the capacity in terms of staff and planning expertise for residential housing delivery. What we do not have is a willingness on the part of central government - this comes back to Fingal - to fund councils to deliver large-scale developments for mixed-income and mixed-tenure housing for social and affordable rent and affordable purchase. I ask the Minister of State to support amendment No. 4. I look forward to his response on it.