Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the motion and thank Sinn Féin for tabling it. The tenant in situ scheme was actually working quite well in Mayo until recently, but over the past year it has been paused entirely. A number of my constituents have actually agreed terms and agreed a sale deal with Mayo County Council over a year ago but are still waiting in line. They are still waiting to find out what is happening but there has been no update or correspondence and very little communication overall. Meanwhile, an eviction notice is about to be served because the landlord does not know what is happening and is now returning to the private sale option. We need clarity and we need to move on this quickly. It is more than a year now for many of my constituents who have agreed a deal and yet there is no information from Government. It is unacceptable. Changes to the scheme need to happen and we need to have clarity on it very quickly. The scheme is working and I would urge the Minister to ensure it continues into the future.

This brings me to a broader point, which is that this Government has lots of schemes. They may sound good in media interviews and so on but the detail of many of the schemes is lacking. The tenant in situ scheme has been paused now for more than a year. The affordable housing scheme has yet to deliver a house in Mayo, under this or the previous Government, over the past five to ten years. There has been no affordable housing under the scheme. We were promised ten but those units have been promised for many years and have not happened yet. The first home scheme is also not happening in the west in particular. The help to buy scheme is not happening in the west, largely due to the fact it only applies to new builds and there is so little new building happening in Mayo. Yet another scheme that is failing.

There is no serviced sites scheme either. There are multiple schemes for which the Government is responsible and yet when we look at the detail there is so little delivery in them. One scheme which is working okay is the vacant property scheme. More than 8,000 applications have been approved but only 1,100 applicants have been successful. Just over 10% of applicants who have been approved on the scheme have been successful.

In the absence of any real scheme for the people of Mayo, will the Minister consider reducing the cost of construction? In recent months I have spoken to many builders who have told me they are pricing jobs but families, couples and young people cannot afford to build. They go to builders, they get planning permission, they have tender documents and they cannot afford it. In recent years the price of timber increased by 70% between 2021 and 2022. The price of concrete increased by almost 50% between 2021 and 2024. The price of cement increased almost 60% during this time. What has the Government done to address this? It has done absolutely nothing. It took in more than €3 billion in VAT last year. It has taken in carbon tax, excise, customs and the defective concrete block levy. All of these are preventing young people in Mayo and throughout the country from building their own homes. In the absence of the Government's schemes, because they are not working, will the Minister please address the issue of costs and construction costs for young couples? The Government is taking the lion's share and it can do something, and must do something, to address this.

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