Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, back to the House on this important legislation, the Affordable Housing Bill. I will speak briefly to this series of important amendments. They are at the very heart of the issue of affordability, as Senator Higgins has said.

It struck me as rather odd that the Bill is entitled the Affordable Housing Bill, but it could not even give us a definition of affordability. There is no definition of affordability in the Bill. You could ask what are we doing here? That is our job. Currently there is no definition. I have studied this and spoken to a number of people about the Bill in recent weeks. I have taken stock of the Bill digest and I acknowledge the work done by the Oireachtas Library and Research Service on this.

Affordability is really the issue. When we consider the issue of the affordable dwelling, in section 5 or throughout the Bill, it merely talks of the ways in which homes can be made available. The Minister of State will be aware of that. The Bill mentions "a dwelling made available by a housing authority", it refers to "a dwelling to which a Part V agreement applies", and it also refers to "an open market dwelling". The Bill says that any home made available through these avenues is an affordable dwelling, but what is an affordable dwelling? My view on affordability is simple. Anything more than 35% of a person's net income is not affordable. That is the reality. Anything, be it any form of rental or purchase scheme or a shared equity scheme that costs more than 35% of a person's net income is not affordable. This is a simple rule and is recognised by many jurisdictions as a marker of affordability.

What use is the term "affordable dwelling" if it bears no meaningful or legal resemblance to what those words are commonly understood to mean? This is very important. Just because a home is made available to a person in a particular manner, it does not make it truly affordable. That cannot be changed by simply putting it into the Bill and passing it through the Houses. There is a lot of ambiguity around the issue of affordability. I know what we are all trying to achieve, but what is affordable is a critical aspect of the legislation.

We are all aware of people who are paying huge sums of money in rent to have a home. We are talking of homes rather than houses. They are paying this money and yet there is no sense of ownership. People want secure tenure, and fair rent or affordable repayments. That is the real issue, and it should be the very kernel of this legislation. I suggest the Minister of State and his officials might look at this again. It is very important and very simple. There is an omission in the legislation. Let us define affordability. We might disagree on our interpretations of affordability but let us define the general common view of it and what is acceptable to the Minister of State, the officials and everybody else. Clearly, we are aware the guideline is around 35% of income. I believe it would be very helpful to do this and it would give great comfort to people.

With regard to the open market dwellings, I live in Dún Laoghaire and there is no more expensive place to live, to acquire a property, to rent a property or to share a property. You could be in some other part of the country and it would be a different scene. What the market demands or sets in one place is very different from another place. This is national legislation so we must be clear. We must have a simple matrix about what we define as "affordable" in this legislation. It is only right and proper that it is set out clearly in this important legislation, which is, after all, the Affordable Housing Bill 2021.