Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte ar ais roimh an Aire Stáit. I will focus on housing. My county of Clare is a mainly rural county. We have Ennis, Shannon and Kilrush, and that is about it when it comes to towns. There is great stuff being done on housing. It is really good in urban areas but my concern is that a lot of the activity through the Land Development Agency is not relevant in my county. Good work is being done in Clare. We have reached our targets on social housing. However, cost-rental and affordable provision is just not happening because most of it is coming through the LDA.

I want people to live in our villages and towns. We see how much demand one-off housing puts on resources. Many people would like to live near their local school and have their children be able to walk or cycle there. We must give people choices. However, there is no mention of serviced sites for towns and villages, which is what we want to see happening under the town centre first policy. I am not sure whether housing policies are marrying with the town centre first policy. The local authority cost-rental scheme is a Government-backed scheme to provide long-term rental agreements on homes at 25% below the market rent. Most cost-rental properties will be delivered through the LDA. In fact, many of these types of incentives are being delivered through that agency. I am not clear as to whether there is any onus on local authorities to do any of these things. Could they say, "That is a matter for the LDA and we do not do it"? I would appreciate an answer on that.

I would like to be able to help my local authority to build houses outside of the social housing stock, on which it has done very well. No affordable housing or cost-rental housing has been built. I was very happy that an undertaking to provide such housing was included in the programme for Government, with cost-rental provision, in particular, being a win for the Green Party. The local authority affordable purchase scheme supports buyers to purchase council-provided homes at a reduced price.Affordable purchase homes are being provided, again through the Land Development Agency, LDA, as part of Project Tosaigh. Does that mean there is no onus on the local authority or there are no supports for the local authority if it is all done through the LDA? Clare is not the only county in this situation and there are many counties that do not have the population of the cities and places where there are rent pressure zones and where the LDA ensures proper housing is going to be constructed by the local authorities.

The scheme for cost-rental tenants in situallows local authorities to buy properties. Where a landlord is selling, the local authority then rents the property to the existing tenants on a cost-rental basis, which is brilliant. The plan is to provide 1,850 cost-rental homes in 2023, including through the Land Development Agency. Will any of those 1,850 be done outside the Land Development Agency? Is there a breakdown of targets per local authority outside of the Land Development Agency?

For local authority social housing acquisition, in 2023, the Government will fund local authorities to purchase 1,500 social homes each. Clare County Council is doing very well and it has bought a lot of houses from private developers and turned them into social housing stock, which is great. Many people I know are very grateful that they got a house with an energy rating of A1, which is brilliant.

The repair and lease scheme is to address problems of vacancy. As far as I know, it is capped at roughly €60,000 per repair. Are there targets for the local authorities in this regard? I am not sure there are. A property has to be vacant for 12 months, there has to be proof of demand for social housing and properties must be assessed to be deemed suitable for social housing, which is good. Again, that sees social housing supported.

The Croí Cónaithe fund is the only really clear one I have come across, and I have seen at first hand that this is working in towns and villages in County Clare. Clare County Council had more than 90 applicants, which means 90 derelict or empty buildings are being turned into homes. That is a very clear win on housing in my county. I do not see many other clear wins around the cost-rental model or the affordable model for housing in Clare.

I could go on about active travel and a lot of other things, but housing is one of the main ones. To raise one other issue, if we do not invest in water treatment, we will not be able to save our towns and villages. We have had a huge issue with this in Clare and I have been raising this for the past three years. If we do not see investment in water treatment and water infrastructure, we will not be able to save our towns and villages.