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Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 8 Mar 2018

Vol. 966 No. 5

Provision of Cost-Rental Public Housing: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members]

The following motion was moved by Deputy Eamon Ryan on Tuesday, 6 March 2018:
That Dáil Éireann:
notes that:
— we are in the midst of a housing crisis which is undermining our society and threatens our economy;
— since 2010, rents in Dublin have increased by an average of 81%;
— there are 700 sites in public ownership around the country which have recently been identified by the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government as having potential for housing development;
— the Government is overly dependent on the private sector for the provision of new housing supply, relying solely on increasing such supply will not address the affordability issue as developers will bid up the prices for available land, leading to further increases in house prices and rents;
— the provision of new social housing, using differential rents, will not on its own address the housing crisis, as it will not affect rent and property price rises in the private sector;
— providing a direct subsidy to existing private market rents similarly fails the test of helping reduce overall rents and would prove very expensive to the exchequer without the State ever acquiring any additional assets;
— EUROSTAT has recently indicated that approved housing bodies will not be able to avail of off-balance sheet financing for the provision of new homes;
— 1,000 new apartments are currently under construction in the docklands area of Dublin but most of those units are already sold to international corporations for the use of their staff;
— we must avoid the mistakes made in other international high-tech cities, where local people are frozen out of the housing market and public servants are unable to afford housing close to hospitals, schools and other social and public services;
— European countries with more stable, affordable and socially inclusive housing systems support large-scale provision of secure cost rental accommodation where rents reflect costs, not the maximum that the market will sustain;
— the case for a new more ‘unitary’ public housing model was set out in a report compiled by the National Economic and Social Council, entitled Social Housing at the Crossroads: Possibilities for Investment, Provision and Cost Rental, in June 2014, which proposed the widespread adoption of a cost rental housing model;
— a cost rental model of housing can reduce development cost by availing of low interest rate public finance, publicly owned land, economies of scale from large-scale development and the absence of profit margins to private developers;
— this model will enable national public housing sectors to remain off-balance sheet, which allows investment to continue through downturns in economic activity;
— cost rental housing schemes could be funded through a combination of the European Investment Bank and other European Union funding institutions, credit unions, pension funds, Home Building Finance Ireland which funds from the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, the Housing Finance Agency, and Exchequer funding, as appropriate;
— this model will provide multi-annual funding commitments to facilitate forward planning;
— the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness contains no targets, and no clear funding stream, for the delivery of cost rental housing; and
— only one small test site for new cost rental housing has been initiated and no other affordable rental scheme is being developed by the Government;
and calls on the Government to:
— define cost rental housing as publicly owned housing which is publicly provided on State-owned land where the rents are set on the basis of recovering the cost of the property over the lifetime of a long-term loan;
— introduce regulations to ensure that any long-term profits, after the repayment of such loans, are retained within the system and reinvested in housing supply;
— direct the new National Regeneration and Development Agency to work with the relevant State agencies to designate Cathal Brugha Barracks in Rathmines, Dublin 6, and Broadstone Garage in Dublin 7 as the first locations and plan for them to be the first of the major cost rental housing developments;
— plan for the construction of 3,000 new homes at these two locations;
— design each cost rental scheme to target those individuals who are currently spending more than one-third of their total income on their current rental accommodation;
— also allocate a percentage of new housing for people on the local authority housing lists and in those cases facilitate the use of a suitable State support - for example, housing assistance payment - to allow them pay the same rent as other tenants;
— involve disability communities, such as Nimble Spaces, in each development so that it promotes an arts-led participatory design process, meets the needs of many different citizens, enables active citizenship and participation, encourages social inclusion and positive relationships, and incorporates smart design that is good for people and the environment; and
— immediately identify other publicly-owned sites that would suit the provision of cost rental schemes led by local authorities, approved housing bodies and housing co-operatives.
Debate resumed on amendment No. 2:
To delete all words after “Dáil Éireann” and substitute the following:
“notes that:
— the Government reaffirms its commitment, in the Programme for a Partnership Government, to develop an affordable cost rental option for low-income families, to help keep rental costs manageable for tenants and allow them to avoid future rental market increase shocks;
— the Government’s ambition is to make cost/affordable rental a major part of the Irish housing system, with rents set at levels to cover construction costs and the management and administration of developments, but with only a minimal retained profit margin, this will be informed by pilot projects being progressed in Dublin at Enniskerry Road and Lusk;
— following the second Housing Summit on 22nd January, 2018, local authorities are now finalising an outline of their respective affordable housing programmes, from the State residential land bank of around 2,000 hectares, including cost rental proposals;
— detailed discussions are continuing with the European Investment Bank regarding the application of its international experiences in developing and supporting affordable housing to large-scale cost rental projects in Ireland;
— the finalisation of new ‘Build to Rent’ and ‘co-living’ planning guidelines to encourage development and investment in more rental accommodation at more affordable rents;
— as part of Project Ireland 2040, the Government’s commitment to establish a new National Regeneration and Development Agency, including consideration of how best to make State lands available, including suitable lands in the control and ownership of Government departments and State agencies, to the new body for, inter alia, affordable residential development;
— a package of affordability measures was announced on 22nd January, 2018, with the potential to deliver more than 3,000 new homes initially and a target for at least 10,000 new affordable homes to buy and rent;
— the new measures are targeted at low- to moderate-income households, with annual gross income of up to €75,000 for dual income and €50,000 for single income households;
— a new Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan was made available from 1st February, 2018, providing long-term, fixed-rate mortgages for first-time buyers;
— a new Affordable Purchase Scheme will see affordable homes built initially on State land, in co-operation with local authorities, such as at the centrally located O’Devaney Gardens in Dublin city centre;
— the new €25 million Serviced Sites Fund will provide funding for local authorities to offer low-cost serviced sites to Approved Housing Bodies or housing co-operatives for the delivery of affordable homes to buy or rent;
— a second Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund (LIHAF), an infrastructural investment fund, will be launched in the first half of 2018 to facilitate the early development of housing lands and delivery of more affordable new homes;
— the Government, through its Rebuilding Ireland – Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness and arising from the focused Rebuilding Ireland review in recent months, has prioritised measures to stimulate housing supply at more affordable prices and rents;
— the Government’s initial primary focus has been on delivering homes for households in the lowest income brackets, through the commitment of over €6 billion to deliver 50,000 new social housing homes by 2021, with qualifying households also able to avail of the Housing Assistance Payment, the Rental Accommodation Scheme and other targeted programmes;
— over 25,000 households had their social housing needs met in 2017, an increase of 90 per cent on levels achieved in 2015;
— the Government has also implemented a suite of measures to facilitate increased residential construction activity and ensure the sector’s capacity to produce more affordable homes, through, inter alia:
— fast-track planning reforms and more flexible planning guidelines;
— €200 million investment in enabling infrastructure to service/open up housing lands with proportionate affordability dividends for house purchasers;
— the development of large-scale mixed-tenure housing projects, with social, affordable and private housing, on publicly-owned lands; and
— the help-to-buy scheme to assist first-time buyers to meet their deposit requirements;
— the Government has also introduced targeted and time-bound measures to limit excessive rent increases (e.g. through Rent Pressure Zones), and to provide further protections and effective support services to both tenants and landlords;
— in Budget 2018, the Government removed significant obstacles to building more homes more quickly, by:
— investing more in direct house-building by the State;
— removing the Capital Gains Tax incentive to hold on to residential land;
— escalating penalties for land hoarding; and
— providing a new, more affordable finance vehicle for builders through House Building Finance Ireland; and
— these measures are having a positive impact with all relevant indicators clearly showing that the supply-based measures under Rebuilding Ireland are working, e.g. over 17,500 new homes commenced construction during 2017, three times as many as in 2016.".
- (Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Damien English)

I must now deal with a postponed division relating to the motion regarding cost rental public housing. On Tuesday, 6 March 2018, on the question that amendment No. 2 to the motion be agreed to, a division was claimed and in accordance with Standing Order 70(2), that division must be taken now.

Amendment put:
The Dáil divided: Tá, 41; Níl, 81; Staon, 0.

  • Bailey, Maria.
  • Barrett, Seán.
  • Breen, Pat.
  • Brophy, Colm.
  • Bruton, Richard.
  • Burke, Peter.
  • Canney, Seán.
  • Cannon, Ciarán.
  • Corcoran Kennedy, Marcella.
  • Coveney, Simon.
  • D'Arcy, Michael.
  • Daly, Jim.
  • Deasy, John.
  • Deering, Pat.
  • Doherty, Regina.
  • Doyle, Andrew.
  • Durkan, Bernard J.
  • English, Damien.
  • Farrell, Alan.
  • Fitzgerald, Frances.
  • Fitzpatrick, Peter.
  • Flanagan, Charles.
  • Harris, Simon.
  • Heydon, Martin.
  • Humphreys, Heather.
  • Kehoe, Paul.
  • Lowry, Michael.
  • Madigan, Josepha.
  • McGrath, Finian.
  • McHugh, Joe.
  • McLoughlin, Tony.
  • Murphy, Eoghan.
  • Naughton, Hildegarde.
  • Neville, Tom.
  • Noonan, Michael.
  • O'Connell, Kate.
  • O'Donovan, Patrick.
  • Ring, Michael.
  • Rock, Noel.
  • Ross, Shane.
  • Stanton, David.

Níl

  • Aylward, Bobby.
  • Barry, Mick.
  • Boyd Barrett, Richard.
  • Brady, John.
  • Brassil, John.
  • Broughan, Thomas P.
  • Browne, James.
  • Buckley, Pat.
  • Burton, Joan.
  • Calleary, Dara.
  • Casey, Pat.
  • Cassells, Shane.
  • Chambers, Jack.
  • Chambers, Lisa.
  • Collins, Michael.
  • Collins, Niall.
  • Connolly, Catherine.
  • Coppinger, Ruth.
  • Cowen, Barry.
  • Crowe, Seán.
  • Cullinane, David.
  • Curran, John.
  • Daly, Clare.
  • Doherty, Pearse.
  • Donnelly, Stephen S.
  • Ellis, Dessie.
  • Ferris, Martin.
  • Fleming, Sean.
  • Funchion, Kathleen.
  • Gallagher, Pat The Cope.
  • Grealish, Noel.
  • Harty, Michael.
  • Haughey, Seán.
  • Healy, Seamus.
  • Kelleher, Billy.
  • Kenny, Gino.
  • Kenny, Martin.
  • Lahart, John.
  • Lawless, James.
  • Martin, Catherine.
  • McConalogue, Charlie.
  • McDonald, Mary Lou.
  • McGrath, Michael.
  • McGuinness, John.
  • Mitchell, Denise.
  • Moynihan, Aindrias.
  • Moynihan, Michael.
  • Munster, Imelda.
  • Murphy O'Mahony, Margaret.
  • Murphy, Catherine.
  • Murphy, Eugene.
  • Murphy, Paul.
  • Nolan, Carol.
  • O'Brien, Darragh.
  • O'Brien, Jonathan.
  • O'Callaghan, Jim.
  • O'Dea, Willie.
  • O'Keeffe, Kevin.
  • O'Loughlin, Fiona.
  • O'Reilly, Louise.
  • O'Rourke, Frank.
  • O'Sullivan, Jan.
  • Ó Broin, Eoin.
  • Ó Caoláin, Caoimhghín.
  • Ó Cuív, Éamon.
  • Ó Laoghaire, Donnchadh.
  • Ó Snodaigh, Aengus.
  • Pringle, Thomas.
  • Quinlivan, Maurice.
  • Rabbitte, Anne.
  • Ryan, Brendan.
  • Ryan, Eamon.
  • Scanlon, Eamon.
  • Sherlock, Sean.
  • Smith, Brendan.
  • Smith, Bríd.
  • Smyth, Niamh.
  • Stanley, Brian.
  • Tóibín, Peadar.
  • Troy, Robert.
  • Wallace, Mick.

Staon

Tellers: Tá, Deputies Joe McHugh and Tony McLoughlin; Níl, Deputies Eamon Ryan and Catherine Martin.
Amendment declared lost.

We must now proceed to consider amendment No. 1 from the Labour Party. Is the Labour Party pressing the amendment?

We will not be pressing the amendment to a vote.

Amendment No. 1 not moved.
Motion agreed to.
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