John Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I thank the Senators for bringing forward this Private Members' motion. I will focus on the housing elements. The motion calls for a plan to be devised and implemented to address issues related to accommodation for young people and their families, making use of vacant properties and providing social housing to those in need. As someone who sits on the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage, who is a strong advocate for bringing derelict and vacant properties back into productive use and who has actively worked on many projects in my city and county of Waterford, I could not agree more that more needs to be done in this space. It is important, however, to point to the schemes that are in place and that are not being utilised to the necessary extent by local authorities. There is the repair and lease scheme, and 50% of all repair and lease units have been delivered in Waterford. While this is great for us in that it has provided one- and two-bed accommodation in city centre locations, it should not be the case that Waterford has 50% of all the units. There are nine local authorities in this country that have failed to deliver even a single unit under this scheme, despite the fact there are 100 units being delivered at this time in Waterford under the same scheme. If it can be delivered in Waterford, there is no reason it cannot be done in other locations. There is also the new Croí Cónaithe towns and villages scheme to activate derelict properties for use by owner-occupiers. There is the repair and lease scheme I mentioned, the Living City initiative, which was extended in the budget yesterday to 2026, and the buy and renew scheme for local authorities to bring those vacant units back into use. More needs to be done by our local authorities. It is not that the finance and the tools are not there. It is that they are not being utilised in certain areas to the extent they should be.

On supporting those who want to own their own home, it is important to point out the initiative that was introduced in 2017, which is the help-to-buy scheme. The certainty of this scheme was brought about yesterday by a two-year extension. This will be welcomed by individuals and families who want to get their foot on the property ladder. That scheme has helped 36,500 people, including 850 in Waterford, to purchase or build their own home. Not to be scoring political points here in the Chamber but it is important young people understand that every Opposition party wants to remove from young people that essential support which helps them get a foot on the property ladder. Those parties are saying they will give one month back in terms of tax credit for renters, which we have gone a long way towards addressing in yesterday's budget with €500 per year, per person. A couple in a house will get a €2,000 tax credit in January if they are renting. What the Opposition are saying is they will give a month's tax credit but will take €30,000 away with the other hand. That is very disappointing and it is disingenuous for parties to be presenting themselves as in some way supporting home ownership when in reality they are doing absolutely nothing or not even proposing anything and are looking to take away supports already provided by Government.

I will touch on the area of student accommodation. The Government needs to take more direct involvement in this area. The Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, has been to the fore in saying we need to do more in this space. The State has to get involved actively in delivering along the lines of the cost rental model we have introduced for new homes being delivered in Ireland. This has to be rolled out for student accommodation too because there is a viability issue where student accommodation is being built that is unaffordable for many students. We have to look at the cost rental model where subsidies are put in place by the State to make the rents affordable for students in the long term. This accommodation will be in the stock of universities and colleges for many years to come.

In the area of housing, nobody on the Government side is saying more cannot be done.Of course, more can be done but we have to acknowledge and be honest with people by saying that only five or six years ago we were building 5,000 homes in this country. We are now up to 26,500 homes and we will continue to ramp that up over the coming years. We have a plan. We will stick to that plan and we will deliver the homes required for this generation and the next. We have to support young people to be able to own their own homes. That is why the help-to-buy scheme, the new shared equity scheme, the local authority affordable purchase scheme and cost rental are key to delivering, as is focusing on social homes for those who need them most.