Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

No, no. Gabhaim buíochas leis an Cathaoirleach.

Right now, Ireland's housing system is not meeting the needs of enough of our people. My colleagues in government and I are keenly aware of this. We know that the impact of the housing crisis is felt in every family across our country, whether hard-pressed tenants stuck in a rent trap or those at the sharpest end of the housing crisis, who will spend tonight sleeping in emergency accommodation or, worse, on streets in our cities. Housing for All, our new housing plan for Ireland, addresses these challenges head-on. It is ambitious. It should be because it needs to be.

The housing crisis is multifaceted and complex. It is only by viewing it as a whole and taking measures across all aspects of our housing system that we can begin to improve upon the situation for all our citizens. That is what this plan is all about. It is a whole of-government approach that will get to grips with this crisis and will improve the lives of all our people.

As Minister, I recognise the scale and depth of the crisis and the urgent need for action. Housing for All is a plan that will give the squeezed middle the opportunity to buy their own home. It is a plan that will help to protect renters. It is a plan for people who are looking for a fresh start and for people who are looking for the opportunity to rightsize. Housing for All is about providing people with real choice while ensuring we create the kind of society that helps those who need it. The breadth of ambition in the plan will help to stop and reverse the decline in home ownership and break the rent trap that many are caught in.

We need all hands on deck to get to grips with this crisis. Refusing to fully mobilise the private sector of small and medium-sized builders would be taking on this fight with one hand tied behind our back. The engagement from all stakeholders is key to our success. At its simplest, the plan will dramatically expand direct State building of affordable and social homes, remove barriers and give support to allow the private sector to grow, and intervene where it fails to build. We need to increase the capacity and efficiency of delivery in both public and private sectors. We will also rely on continued collaborative engagement with the construction sector and other important stakeholders, who are pivotal to its success.

Housing for All is the most ambitious housing plan in the history of the State. It sets out a series of 213 bold actions that rise to the challenge, backed up by an unprecedented financial commitment in excess of €4 billion per year. It is the first time that any Government has published a multi-annual, multibillion funded plan. More than 300,000 new homes will be built by the end of 2030, including a projected 90,000 social homes, 36,000 affordable purchase homes and at least 18,000 cost-rental homes. It is the largest State-led building programme in our history, surpassing the heydays of the 1940s and 1950s.

At the heart of Housing for All is a dramatic expansion in the role of the State in providing affordable homes for purchase and rent, while building historic levels of new social housing. I have always firmly believed in the State taking a role and leading by example. The plan involves the public and private sector working in tandem to meet our housing requirements of an average of more than 33,000 new homes every year. Housing for All is about pathways to a better future that draws this comprehensive approach together. It will support homeownership and increase affordability. It will eradicate homelessness, increasing social housing delivery and support social inclusion. It will increase new housing supply across the board. It will address vacancy and ensure the efficient use of existing stock. It is the most significant intervention by the State in housing ever. It is a fully funded, multi-annual, multibillion euro plan.

The first pathway's vision is clear. We will place the opportunity of homeownership back in the hands of ordinary working people. The first home scheme will see people buy their homes with the help of Government by bridging the gap between the finance they have and the cost of the home that they want. The local authority-led affordable purchase scheme will see homes at an average of €250,000 be available across the country. A reformed local authority mortgage scheme will see more single people eligible for State-backed mortgages. I have already reduced the rate in that mortgage product by 0.25%. The Planning and Development Act 2000 has been amended, meaning 20% of all developments will be set aside for affordable and social housing.

The affordability measures provided for in this plan will set us on a path to reversing the current trend which has seen homeownership rates fall to historic lows in this country. I believe in homeownership and this plan supports it. The introduction of cost rental, a new tenure in Ireland, will be a game changer for those renting. It will result in thousands of individuals and families renting safe and secure homes at rates at least 25% below the open market value. We have cost-rental tenants already in place in their homes within 12 months of the formation of this Government.

The second pathway puts forward the vision of eradicating homelessness and supporting social inclusion. This will be achieved by delivering 90,000 social homes by 2030, by expanding the Housing First programme and ensuring the provision of necessary health and mental health supports. We are targeting 1,200 Housing First tenancies over the next five years. This has been an incredible success, with tenancy retention rates of over 90%. We will continue its expansion. The second pathway will also be achieved by focusing on the construction and acquisition of one and two-bed homes. This will increase the housing options available to people with complex needs, those who are looking for a fresh start, people who want to rightsize and older individuals to allow them to age in place with dignity and independence.The third pathway is all about increasing housing supply. We must act decisively to increase the supply of private, affordable and social houses to meet the needs of people in a wide variety of circumstances. We will do this by significantly increasing funding, with an average of €4 billion each year for the next five years to give the sector the certainty and the stability it needs. We will provide more State land to the Land Development Agency for social home construction and will provide increased funding for local authorities for land acquisition. We will overhaul and simplify the planning system to ensure certainty and stability. The plan also includes modern Kenny report-style powers to ensure the State gets a fairer share of the increase in the value of land resulting from rezoning decisions and that the community benefits as well. This will have the effect of reducing the speculative value of land in time.

We are empowering local authorities to get back building again and with our affordable housing body, AHB, partners, we will deliver an average of 10,000 new social home builds each year. Major planning decisions will be returned to local authorities and will be subject to strict timeframes, while judicial reviews are and will be overhauled to unblock obstacles to development. Rural communities will be given greater certainty over building homes in their areas. These measures are targeted and radical but are necessary to respond to the challenges we face. These will all create the environment we need to supply of 300,000 new homes for our people by 2030.

At a time of such housing need, we have to ensure that the housing stock we already have is being fully used. I am introducing a number of initiatives in our fourth pathway to directly address this. These include establishing and funding a town centre first policy, making our towns and villages vibrant to meet, live and work in; tackling any remaining unfinished estates; and launching a new compulsory purchase order, CPO, programme to allow local authorities to acquire up to 2,500 vacant properties over the next four years and present them to the open market for sale, as well as better understanding the levels of vacant properties in residential property with a view to introducing a vacant property tax.

Despite the pandemic, Government has been focused on progressing major reforms that will accelerate and increase the supply of public, affordable and private housing. We got to work straight away last year, while at the same time developing Housing for All. We passed the first ever comprehensive affordable housing Act and reformed the Land Development Agency, giving it a legislative backing and adding to its powers. Just recently, we opened Ireland's first cost rental homes comprising 25 units in Balbriggan, County Dublin. It is a start. We signed the Lisbon Declaration, thereby committing to ending homelessness by 2030; increased grant funding to assist older people and people with a disability; extended rent pressure zones and limited rent increases to general inflation. We introduced five separate items of tenancy legislation to protect renters through the pandemic, brought 3,600 vacant social homes back into productive use, increased Irish Water funding by more €100 million and banned co-living.

These actions demonstrate the Government's commitment to fixing our housing system. Housing for All takes that commitment a step further and it is a step on the pathway to a sustainable housing system by clearly setting out how we plan to address the serious short-, medium- and long-term challenges to 2030. The housing system is complex. There is no magic fix. I cannot tell Members it will be resolved overnight and they all know that. We have the solutions, ability, drive and capability and now we have a plan to make a real impact, which is backed by real money. This plan will make a real difference for real people. Together, the Government is determined to make it work.