Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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51. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government to confirm the price of the one-, two- and three-bedroom cost-rental units in Oscar Traynor Road, O'Devaney Gardens and Shanganagh Castle. [43228/24]

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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Of course, the Minister does not know what the answer was because he was not here, but-----

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I listened very intently to the Deputy and he did not answer the question.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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-----I am happy to discuss it with him again.

I hope I might have a better chance of getting a straight answer to this straight question. There are three cost-rental schemes, at Shanganagh Castle, O'Devaney Gardens and Oscar Traynor Road. The contracts for all those cost-rental schemes have been signed. Will the Minister put on the record of the Dáil what the cost of renting a one-, two- and three-bedroom unit will be in each of those three developments? That will allow the public to decide whether they are affordable.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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We have already seen that the public are responding to cost rental. The Deputy knows that and it might disappoint him, but the Government's Housing for All plan, as he knows, targets the delivery of 18,000 cost-rental homes by approved housing bodies, AHBs, the Land Development Agency, which the Deputy would abolish, and local authorities, although he has not yet said how Sinn Féin will engage them to build properties. I have approved funding for the acquisition of cost-rental homes in O'Devaney Gardens and Oscar Traynor Road, a scheme the Deputy railed against, under the cost-rental equity loan scheme, which provides funding to AHBs of up to 55% of capital costs through a combination of long-term, low-interest loans and State equity investment.

As arrangements are still being finalised by delivery partners, full details relating to the cost rents are not yet publicly available. These details will be announced in due course, closer to the time of delivery, and I will make sure the Deputy will be one of the first to know. Additionally, the LDA is partnering with Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council to deliver 195 cost-rental homes at Shanganagh Castle. Again, the proposed cost rents are being finalised and are subject to a designation process but are anticipated - I say this to be helpful - to be in the region of €1,250 per month, with applications opening later this year. That is long-term, secure, State-backed affordable rents. In all those cases, the minimum threshold we have set, of 25% below market price, will be greatly exceeded. We are looking at a range of 30% to 35% for reductions on what the rents would be on the open market.

The delivery of cost-rental homes on each of these sites will contribute to sustainable mixed-tenure communities, alongside high-quality affordable homes and very good affordable purchase homes also supported by the Government and my Department. The LDA is due to advertise and launch the cost-rental homes at Shanganagh Castle next month and the details of these cost rents will be made available at that time, including to the Deputy.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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It is remarkable that the Minister said the rents have not yet been finalised, because they have been. We know that because John Coleman from the Land Development Agency told an Oireachtas committee that. Contrary to the information the Minister has put before us, we do know that the rents for a one-bedroom unit in Shanganagh will be €1,250 a month-----

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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That is what I said.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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-----but we also know that rents for a two-bedroom unit will be €1,520 and that those for a three-bedroom unit will be €1,700. That is the single highest cost rent for a three-bedroom or a two-bedroom unit delivered to date.

I also understand that Dublin City Council has signed the contracts with Tuath and Clúid for the cost rentals in O'Devaney Gardens and Oscar Traynor Road. While the one-bedroom units will come in very similar to those in Shanganagh, the two-bedroom units will be more expensive, in excess of €1,600 a month. The three-bedroom units in O'Devaney Gardens will reach €1,900 a month. The Minister knows this information. He could have put it into the public domain. I suspect he would prefer if it does not go into the public domain until after the election, because not only are these rents now substantially higher than rents for existing renters in the private rental sector, but they are nowhere close to affordable.

I will give the Minister a second opportunity. Why does he not just tell us what the rents in Oscar Traynor Road and O'Devaney Gardens are going to be?

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I have answered the question honestly on the record of the Dáil. I do not have a track record of misleading the Dáil. I have always been open and honest with people. The Deputy can laugh at that but his party's behaviour over recent weeks in that regard has been nothing short of reprehensible, so I do not think it is something to laugh about. I am not going to conflate the two issues, but when we put answers on the Dáil record or speak on the Dáil record, we do so honestly and openly with the information we have.

More than 2,180 cost-rental homes have been delivered by the State, by approved housing bodies, local authorities and the LDA and also through the cost-rental tenant in situ scheme. This tenure did not exist three years ago but this Government legislated for it and introduced and implemented it. I have met many of these cost-rental tenants who are absolutely delighted to have got those homes at affordable rents. They are safe, secure and long tenures in well-built and well-managed developments.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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It is simply factually incorrect for the Minister to come to the Dáil and say the rents on those three projects have not been finalised. They have been. The legal contracts have been signed and the Minister knows that, and people can judge that for themselves.

I am a strong advocate of cost rental - I have argued for it for more than two decades - and the Minister knows I supported the legislation to facilitate it even though the Government has taken a very good concept and mangled it beyond recognition, by which I mean the rents are simply not affordable. Between €1,500 and €1,600 a month for a two-bedroom unit, or between €1,700 and €1,900 a month for a three-bedroom unit, is not affordable. A growing number of people for whom cost rental was designed, who are not eligible for social housing, are being priced out. The number of applicants for cost-rental homes applying to the LDA and AHBs who are being refused because they do not earn enough to get cost rental but earn too much for social housing is growing ever larger. There is no such thing as cost-rental tenant in situ because not one AHB has bought one of those homes from the Housing Agency and they are still paying full market rents.

I ask the Minister a third time. Will he tell us what the rents will be in Oscar Traynor Road and O'Devaney Gardens, because he knows what they are?

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I have told the Deputy, on the record of the House, that they will be around €1,250, according to the information I have. The final rent figures have not yet been decided on. What I can tell the Deputy-----

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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The contracts have been signed.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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-----and this will disappoint him, is that not only-----

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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The LDA has published the information.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy got away with this earlier on when he interrupted me consistently in the previous debate. I ask him to let me answer the question. He might not like-----

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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I would love the Minister to answer the question. I invite him to do so.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Please, Deputy.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy's arrogance knows no limits and I would check it if I were him. We have delivered 2,180 cost-rental homes from nothing, and it might disappoint him to hear that the pipeline of cost rental amounts to 7,700 homes.

Scaling up the delivery of cost rental, a tenure that did not exist before, will have a very positive impact on the private rental market as well. I meet those people who get their cost-rental homes. I can tell the Deputy, and he knows this from the report that was published by the Irish Council for Social Housing, that if you look at the feedback from people who have got these homes, it is absolutely completely and utterly positive and we will continue to drive the delivery of cost-rental homes for as long as we are here.