Seanad debates

Friday, 4 June 2021

Affordable Housing Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed)

 

9:30 am

Photo of John CumminsJohn Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will start from where Senator Pauline O'Reilly left off and expand on the point. The State will intervene in this cost rental system and provide homes over a 40-year period. I do not think any of us will still be in this House in 40 years' time but there will be capacity to do much more at that point. Senator Moynihan suggested linking units that have paid off their building, management and financing costs over that 40-year period and are in the ownership of approved housing bodies, and thereby in the ownership of the State. There may be capacity to do something at that stage. I am thinking particularly of an older person who will have been in those properties for a significant period. Such a person would get to retirement age and the property would be fully paid off and in the ownership of the State. At that stage, those homes could be linked to income, as happens in other areas in Europe that started this process much earlier.To be clear, if we were to accept the amendments being put forward-----

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