John Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for coming to the House. Debates on housing in this Chamber are always welcome. I echo many of the comments made by the Minister with regard to the progress that has been made through both Housing for All and Rebuilding Ireland. If we look at where we came from in 2013, fewer than 5,000 homes were being built in this country. Last year, 30,000 homes were delivered. We are going to exceed that number again this year. More than 470 first-time buyers are purchasing their first home every week. If that continues to the end of the year, over 25,000 first-time buyers will have bought their first homes in 2023. That is not something one hears about very often, but it is a fact because those are the figures.

As the Minister indicated, the number of new social homes last year was 10,200. That is an increase of 500% on 2014. These numbers represent an absolute step change. If we look at those in opposition, and I know that the Minister has called them out in recent times, but I have been doing that for a long time with regard to the lack of an actual policy on housing. My understanding is that there could be something appearing this week. If that is the case, I certainly look forward to scrutinising it. The main Opposition party's last housing policy was published in 2016. It stated that in government, said party would deliver 100,000 new social and affordable homes through local authorities and approved housing bodies, AHBs, over the following 15 years. Sinn Féin also stated that in the period 2016 to 2021 it would deliver 36,500 social and affordable homes. One does not hear the Opposition talking about those numbers because the previous Government and this one have delivered 48,210 social homes in that period. The Government figure represents an increase of 32% on what Sinn Féin said it would deliver.

The Minister cited many of the schemes he has put in place, and I welcome them. The waiver on Irish Water development contributions is to stimulate construction. I certainly hope that this can continue into next year. In the context of the help-to-buy scheme, more than 42,000 individuals and families are living in homes today. The Opposition has no alternative to that. As Senator Fitzpatrick rightly pointed out, this scheme is an invaluable lifeline to allow people to get deposits together. If it was taken away tomorrow, all that would happen is that fewer homes would be built. That is the case because if a builder or developer knows there are purchasers for their products, they will continue to build. If they know that the help-to-buy scheme will be taken away tomorrow and the number of people who can get deposits together is reduced, fewer homes will be built. That will occur as sure as night follows day. Some 2,000 buyers were approved in the first 12 months of the first home scheme. Affordable purchase schemes across the country are being delivered, including in my county, Waterford. We must see more local authorities in that space delivering strong numbers in the coming years. It looks like more than 50 or 60 individuals and families moving into homes in Waterford already or in the next few weeks, including individuals and couples who did not think they would have the opportunity to purchase their own homes. My office assisted 18 of those affordable purchasers to go through that process with the Land Development Agency, LDA, and council in order to purchase their first homes. Likewise, we assisted about ten or 12 people to utilise the first home scheme. These schemes are working for people. Opposition parties are proposing to abolish them. It does not make sense because they are helping people, just like the vacant property refurbishment grant, for which there have been 4,000 applications and 2,000 approvals. It is delivering homes in rural communities in particular, which has a positive effect, as Senator McDowell rightly pointed out. It assists the GAA club and local schools and provides people to shop in the local community. Those are really good things. It brings houses back into productive use. There needs to be more cost-rental. The Minister introduced a host of schemes in that space but delivery from local authorities, in particular, taking that jump and entering that space has been very slow. They need to get into that space a lot more quickly.

On the single-stage versus the four-stage approval process, I raised this issue with the Minister's officials at the committee. Local authorities can have their schemes underwritten by €6 million. That figure must be increased and must go hand-in-glove with a commitment from the Department that if a local authority enters the single-stage approval process, the tendered price will be underwritten by the Department. At the moment, there is a financial risk. If the local authority says that scheme A will cost €5 million and it ends up in a tender price of €5.5 million, it has a risk. I was told a circular would go out but I understand it has not, to date. If one went out from the Department stating that the tendered price will be underwritten by the Department, there would be far more local authorities using that single-stage approval process, which would increase the quick delivery of homes.