John Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have listened intently to the speeches on a very important topic made by my two colleagues on the other side of the House. In case there is any uncertainty, I can assure them that there is absolutely nobody on the Government side that is throwing in the towel on housing. Far from it. That is why we introduced a €5 billion budget for housing this year. That is why we have seen supply ramp up to 32,700 homes last year. That is why we have seen the rolling three-month commencement data, over the last three months, reach 3,200. If that run rate continues for a 12-month period then that is over 38,000 homes. The trajectory is positive. That is why we have introduced schemes like the help-to-buy scheme assisting over 45,000 individuals and families to get their deposit together to purchase or build their first home. That is why we have introduced the first home scheme. There have been over 3,500 approvals and 1,500 drawdowns thus far under the scheme. That is why we brought in activation measures such as those for development levies and Uisce Éireann's refund of connection charges.

Of course there is a common denominator. Every single one of these measures was opposed by Sinn Féin. The very activation measures that we have introduced, they want to strip away from the young people that they claim to represent. That is what is so dishonest about this motion, that they can stand in this Chamber and claim, and proclaim, to represent people while at the same time their colleagues actively propose to abolish the exact supports that are supporting people to buy and purchase their first home. They know that under the Housing for All plan and the Affordable Housing Act that we have introduced a new tenure-type of cost rental that has rents of at least 25% below market rent. Let us explain cost rental in case there is any misunderstanding of what it is. Cost rental is the cost of building, maintaining and financing a development over a 50-year period.

Let us consider some of the other dishonest things that have been mentioned in the Opposition's motion. First, they want to freeze rents for three years. That sounds great in theory but for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The left-wing Berlin Government introduced a similar scheme to much fanfare saying that it would freeze rent for five years. What happened after 12 months? The German Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional and supply dropped by 50%. That is a fact and it happened in Berlin. What makes Sinn Féin think that Ireland is any different from Berlin?

The last thing we need in an already constrained rental market is to reduce supply even further. Sinn Féin knows that an owner-occupier guarantee has been introduced that has ensured that more than 33,000 units since 2021 have been protected from the bulk purchase of homes. They know that a 10% stamp duty has been brought in to dissuade that but, more than that, they know that less than 1% of schemes that previously had planning permission, before those measures were introduced in 2021, have been purchased in bulk.They know that issue does not arise for properties for which planning permission has been granted from that date. They also know that a tenant in situscheme has been introduced with more than 1,500 purchases and another 1,300 in process at the moment. They also know that people cannot speak out of both sides of their mouths when talking about landlords and the provision of rental supply. They cannot vilify a sector that provides rental accommodation for the very individuals and families that need it most while on the other hand asking what the Government is doing to try to stem the tide of landlords leaving the market. They cannot have it both ways. However, we cannot expect anything less from a party that objects wholesale to housing throughout the country. The Opposition knows this is a dishonest motion and that the measures we have introduced as a Government are starting to work but of course it takes time to ramp up housing supply. Nobody in Government will throw in the towel on housing because we are as passionate as the next person in ensuring that people have homes to rent, buy and live in with security of tenure. I assure Members of that.