Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate this is one of the first Private Members' debates for the Minister of State in his new role but I would have been embarrassed to have to read out the speech that he read given the record of his party in government. Let us just look at the facts. Since his party has been in government, house prices have doubled, rents have doubled and the most shocking figure is that child homelessness has increased by 500% while Fine Gael has led the Government since 2011. Tonight we will have more children sleeping in emergency accommodation than at any other time since records began. The country is wealthier and more experienced and we have more vacant homes than ever before. To come in here and say the Government's plan is working when this is the human consequence of its failed housing policy is an embarrassment.

Let us look at the Minister of State's county. How many affordable homes were in his county last year? It was zero. What was the delivery of social homes as per the Government's plan? It was half of what was promised. How many vacant property refurbishment grants were drawn down a year and a half into the scheme in the county with one of the highest levels of vacancy? It was eight. What about the families with pyrite defective homes crumbling around them? They are telling the Government the scheme is not working.

What is the Minister of State's response? It is to read a script that is filled with misleading information. He probably does not even realise it is misleading because he is new in the brief. He has told us 12,000 new social homes were delivered last year. This is not true; it was 8,500, 10% below target. He told us 4,000 affordable housing solutions were delivered. I do not know what a solution is. People cannot live in a solution. One third of these were simply approvals for a shared equity loan that have not even been drawn down. It is simply not true to quote the figure, as the Taoiseach did earlier today.

The Minister of State said 1,600 cost rentals were delivered but what about cost rentals that cost €1,400 month for one-bed accommodation and €1,800 for three-bed accommodation? Is this affordable? He said 1,000 affordable purchases were delivered. He was not here earlier today when I listed the full price to the purchaser in many of these projects, which can range from €475,000 to €565,000 for a Government-funded affordable housing scheme. What planet do you people live on?

The Minister of State spoke about private homes. Last year, 8,000 homes were built to be sold on the private market. What was the number in 2019? It was 8,000. Over all of this time the number of new homes for ordinary working people to buy on the market has not increased. In fact, it has fallen as a percentage. The funniest thing the Minister of State said – funny if it was not so serious – was that the Government's targets were evidence-based. Nobody believes this. They were based on outdated CSO data that completely ignored pent-up demand. They have not been reviewed since they were introduced and there is nothing agile about them. Yes, 100,000 homes have been delivered but this is less than half of what is required.

That is not just my view but the view of many others. The Government will not spend the €5 billion of capital. It did not spend the €4 billion last year or the €4 billion the year before because of its incompetence. Here is the problem. We have people across the country who simply cannot afford to buy a home because its policies have pushed up house prices. Its affordable purchase scheme and affordable rental scheme are not working. We have proposed a credible alternative. All of the answers to the Minister's questions that he did not have the courtesy to remain in the Chamber to hear were published in 2021. Subsequently, his scheme has not worked. Something else needs to be introduced. That is why we have tabled this motion. I commend it to the House. Until we get the current parties out of government, the affordable and social housing crisis and homelessness crisis will be deepened. For the Minister of State to come into the House and say what he has said today is not only shocking but truly embarrassing. Shame on him for that.

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