Dee Ryan (Fianna Fail)

I rise to make my final contribution on my first term in the Seanad. During my time so far in Leinster House, I focused on highlighting the trolley crisis at University Hospital Limerick. I turn my attention to the other burning issue for us in Limerick which is the challenge of affordable housing. That term "affordable housing" is often misunderstood.When I say "affordable housing" in this context, I am talking about the Government scheme to support people who earn over €40,000, as the threshold is in Limerick, that is, over the threshold to qualify for social housing, but who do not earn enough to be able to purchase from the private market, so approximately €75,000 or €80,000. That is a huge salary range and those are fine earnings that people are making in Limerick. Unfortunately, however, the private market is not delivering homes at a cost at which they can purchase them. Affordable housing in this context is the scheme whereby the Government subsidises the cost to deliver housing for those people. I am really dismayed to learn that in Limerick, on foot of my questionings with the local authority, we have only 12 homes in that affordable range coming forward in the pipeline in the foreseeable future. They are rental; they are not even affordable purchase.

We need an urgent debate with the Minister for housing. I know it is an area he is very focused on. I look forward to the work he has done on this being unveiled in the coming weeks. At the earliest possibility, when we come back after the recess, I would like the Minister to come into the House to discuss this cohort of working people, the people who pay for everything, who are not being housed in our society. In Limerick, it is a significant number. We think it is approximately 20,000 people, according to the last census, over the age of 18 who are still living at home with their parents.