Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after “That Seanad Éireann:” and substitute the following:

“notes that: - the Government established the Housing Commission in 2021 to consider long-term housing policy post-2030 and examine how to build on the policy changes outlined in Housing for All and related Government policies;

- the Report of the Housing Commission (the Report) was submitted to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage on 8th May 2024 and was published very shortly thereafter on 22nd May 2024;

- the Report is a culmination of more than two years work, encompasses over 400 pages, including appendices, and sets out some 83 recommendations and more than 500 actions and sub-actions, and requires comprehensive and careful consideration by Government;

- it is clear that the recommended radical policy reset is already under way through Housing for All and other initiatives and some 65 or so of the 83 recommendations are already at varying stages of planning and implementation;

- the Report does not include costings or timelines for implementation, which are crucial for a proper and comprehensive consideration of the measures proposed; the Minister has already requested the Housing Agency to undertake this work;

- the Report, together with the conclusions of the Housing Agency vis-à-vis costings, timelines and priority actions, will help inform consideration of the forthcoming Housing for All Action Plan Update and the revised housing targets due to be published in the autumn;

further notes:

- the significant progress made since Housing for All was launched in September 2021 is underpinned by record State support, including €5.1 billion capital investment in 2024, the highest level of funding for housing in the history of the State;

- there has been a step change in housing supply since 2020, with some 109,000 new homes built between 2020 and the end of Q1 2024, and with almost 33,000 new homes delivered in 2023 alone;

- the critical measures implemented by the Government, including the development levy waiver and water connection refund, have boosted and accelerated the supply of new housing, with an extraordinary surge in the new home commencements to some 53,000 in the year to end-April, and more than 18,000 in April alone;

- the substantial uplift in delivery in 2022 and 2023 will likely be sustained this year and, underpinned by a robust construction pipeline, will undoubtedly be built upon 2025 and subsequent years;

- the Government has placed an unrelenting focus on addressing the significant challenges in the housing market, evidenced by record delivery of almost 12,000 new social homes in 2023 through a mix of new builds, acquisitions and leasing, together with more than 4,000 affordable housing supports which is more than double the quantum delivered in 2022;

- the Government is committed to substantially increasing social and affordable housing delivery, which comprises more than one-third of all new housing supply planned under Housing for All;

- the Government is currently reviewing its housing targets, which will be primarily informed by independent, peer-reviewed research and modelling by the ESRI on population and long-run housing demand projections, with revised targets, providing for current and future demand, due to be published in the autumn;

and agrees that:

- the continued implementation of Housing for All and the forthcoming update, which will have regard to the Report, represents the most appropriate response to the housing challenges which Ireland is now facing.

Nothing really epitomises the Opposition's approach to housing more than its approach to this report. It did not wait for the report to be released; it somehow got its hands on a leaked version. Having secured the latter, those in opposition did not bother to read it. Despite the motion before us, they are not even bothering to speak to the report. It took however many experts were involved two and a half years to produce the report, but those in opposition not even bothered to read it. They have used the House's time to submit a motion and gather everybody together to discuss the subject of housing, which affects every citizen's life and which is essential in order to be able to go to school, college or work and reach his or her full potential. Housing is issue that the Government has made one of its top priorities. What are those in opposition doing? They are using housing, purely and exclusively, as a campaigning tool. They seek to exploit the human challenge relating housing that is being experienced by far too many of our citizens for their own personal and political gain. That is their only interest in this issue.

I will talk about the report. It is a really valuable report. I thank every member of the commission who gave up their time to help compile this report. It is an incredibly important piece of work. It is a piece of work that will help not just this Government but also future Governments. It will help not just the current generation of people who are locked out of housing; it will also ensure that future generations will not to be locked out.

The report highlights specific actions and makes recommendations on actions that should be taken to ensure that we have a sustainable housing model post 2030. This is really important work. It is a pity it was not done ten years ago. I congratulate the Government on putting Housing for All - a plan to build 300,000 homes that has already delivered over 100,000 homes, that is supporting renters and that is putting homeownership within reach for a whole generation - in place. The Government went one step further, however, and commissioned a report. That report has now been completed and neither the Minister, the Government nor anybody who supports the Government has dismissed it.

I am of the view that the right action has been taken in that the report is being considered. Of the 85 actions or so that it contains, 63 are already in train. It is factually incorrect to assert that the Minister, the Government or anybody supporting the Government dismissed the report. It is factually incorrect to say that no progress is being made or that the report is being ignored. In fact, the report, which contains significant and wide-reaching proposals, is being assessed and analysed. Those proposals are really important. They relate to things like reforming our planning, which is already in place. The report also contains proposals on expanding on modern methods of construction, accelerating and increasing adaptive reuse, ensuring that we have both the right housing in the right locations and the right-sizing of housing and addressing issues relating to cost.

The report also addresses many other issues. It calls for a continuation of many of the interventions already introduced under Housing for All. I refer here to initiatives the Opposition objected to, including the shared equity scheme, which is being used to financially subvent first-time buyers in the context of buying their own homes. The report refers to the continuation of the help-to-buy scheme and having real supports for first-time buyers. It also refers to the continuation of the vacant home grant, which is another great intervention on the part of this Government. It further refers to the housing need in cities being dealt with by means of one- and two-bedroom homes, the building of thousands of which of the Leader of the Opposition has objected to in her constituency. There is also reference to a diverse and stable housing mix and having private housing and private funding.

The Opposition is silent on all of this. It is silent on changing the cost-rental model for social housing. It has nothing to say about the actual report. That is because the report is challenging. We have a challenging situation on our hands, but what separates the Government and those who support it from those in opposition is that we are up for the challenge. We do not shy away from it. We do not just describe it. We are rolling up our sleeves and doing the hard work of making difficult choices in order to ensure that there will be a sustainable housing model into the future, that the housing crisis will not continue into the future and that we will have a long-term sustainable housing model that will be adequate to meet the needs of our citizens.