HOUSING PLAN IS A FREE FALL - Deputy Mary Lou McDonald- speech from 19 Feb 2025

Welcome to Leaders' Questions Housing delivery is the number one priority for this government. That's the opening line of the statement issued by yourself and Tanaiste following the first meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Housing. From this meeting you had promised a slate of new and dynamic ideas, you said, to tackle the housing crisis, but that has not materialised. In fact, you have brought nothing new at all. The truth is, Taoiseach, that your housing plan is in free fall. After your figure of 40,000 new homes for 2024 was discovered to be a work of fiction. So now you have this scattered, frantic, directionless approach where the government is talking about everything but dealing with nothing. Just to remind you, we still have sky-high house prices. The CSO tell us 200,000 euros more expensive now than a decade ago. We still have rip-off rents, shocking levels of homelessness. And today, a report reveals the extent to which international students are being pressurised for sex in return for rent-free housing. Surely a new low. You propose to end the rent pressure zones. You propose to reintroduce tax breaks for developers. But you give nothing on how government is going to deliver homes that working people can actually afford to buy or rent. After all the high-level meetings, your big centrepiece idea, it seems, is to relax planning rules to allow people to build cabins in the bottom of their gardens. Now, greater flexibility is needed in this, and we will work with the Minister to get the regulations in place. But to cast this up as the solution to the housing crisis simply highlights just how broken and how failed your response to the housing crisis is. Tinkering around at the edges doesn't cut it, Taoiseach. We need a serious change of direction in housing policy, one in which the housing needs of ordinary people is prioritised and where affordability is tackled head-on. In O'Devney Gardens, now called Montpellier, here in Dublin, the largest government so-called affordable housing scheme in the state, we read this morning that a two-bedroom department in the development can cost anything up to €402,000. That's not affordable, Taoiseach. It's certainly not the cost we should be getting from a government-subsidised housing scheme. This was, remember, public land on which the state should have, could have developed genuinely affordable homes. But instead, government forced Dublin City Council to hand it over to a private developer, and now we have these prices that are out of reach for the vast majority of working people. Taoiseach, you have stated that everything is on the table when it comes to housing. But in reality, this is code for not having a clue what to do next. Your so-called new government has no new ideas and no coherent plan. Taoiseach, this government is all over the place on housing. The big question now is when will you get your act together? When will you bring forward new ideas and solutions to this crisis? Here, here, here. Hey, Isha. When I'm a little bit old, I'll decision you down and say, to Northern and theshow, Mr. Wei Li, he may be interested in me. What's coming down-life is important? latin of the Mina August snobling to a tall rowing a control and talk on hey no good and policy at I can reach a show about knees far of a special about knees if talk then the policy her at all fight you hey action fan of this nail in our sort of feeling efficient just want to say at the outset that the since 19 since 2020 onwards there has been progress in relation to housing and we went from 20 thousand a year to over 30 thousand a year we exceeded the targets that were set in housing for all which were realistic targets taking variable factors into account but given the rise in Irish population and the growth of our country it's not enough and I acknowledge that and housing is the number one issue facing us and we have introduced a range of schemes the last government did this government only a number of weeks in office has announced affordable 450 million additional funding and for social affordable and cost rental homes we're setting up a new strategic initiative offices housing initiative office as recommended by the housing Commission we're publishing the national planning framework to allow us to zone much more land and to enable the county councils and the city councils to zone additional land for more houses and to be built so we are hitting the ground running in relation to the housing agenda and if I contrast with your position because and I acknowledge all the challenges and the pricing and so on like that but the bottom line is that our schemes have helped an enormous amount of first-time buyers to help to buy scheme has been about 51,000 approvals so 51,000 approvals you opposed it and you proposed to abolish it the first home scheme likewise over 3,000 homes have been bought by young couples or young individuals using the first home scheme you proposed to abolish that and that's I believe why the people were not persuaded by your housing policy platform and then you had a convoluted idea under affordable housing that people could buy the house but they couldn't buy the land on which the house was built and you would dictate how they would sell the house subsequently which appealed to nobody out there in respect of young people looking to buy a house and for the future and those are the facts and people made decisions based on that but that doesn't get away from the need to get to 50,000 houses per annum as the AESRI are indicating is required given our population growth and the focus has to be on initiatives that make that happen you mentioned O'Devony Gardens I accept those prices are high but they're being heavily subsidised as it is by the state heavily subsidised so you can't have it both ways deputy sorry the entire intervention in housing at the moment this is repeated now happening at Keown Corle repeated heckling and interventions by Sinn Féin every time I speak on leaders questions and that sort of intimidating tactics and well I'm just making a point yeah and I'm not going to take it and without making the point please because Deputy O'Brien seems to either aspiring to be the leader of Sinn Féin or what I don't know but he's constantly interrupting on these matters but could I say and that we do in terms of other initiatives that we will be taking and we outlined those yes in the aftermath of the cabinet so I can only surmise that you wish to deflect and comment on Sinn Féin's policies because you know you've been caught out like you've been found out right you spoofed during the election campaign you prevent presented a work of fiction kind of fact flexibility from Fianna Fáil what a novel thing not and now you're in the hot seat again and there's an expectation of delivery and you are showing no serious intent much less any capacity to actually deliver the affordable homes that working people require at scale no interest really in taming runaway rents far from us you're quite happy to listen to your lobbyist friends all of your old party political mates who now find themselves in other places of influence you've missed social and affordable housing targets every single year on your watch and the typical home as I told you is 200 grand more expensive than over a decade ago you claim progress to respond but the residential property price index demonstrates that their prices are up by 8.7 percent in the last 12 months so you're failing Tisha why don't you just stand up and accept that fact first of all the difference in our policy platforms and housing are clear and I think you would do away with supports for first-time buyers we're going to double down and continue our supports for first-time buyers in particular and we have in the first weeks of this government substantially now increased allocations for social affordable and cost rental an additional 450 million I know the big issue facing the country is out turn we're at the beginning of this year we're beginning we're not misleading anybody deputy this is going to be a constant deputy please stop interrupting I've heard your leader definitely it's your leader asking the question and allowed the Taoiseach to speak thank you thank you this is a constant behavioral tactic of Sinn Féin to prevent the government side of the house to at least present its position when the time is up the main point I was going to make is this there are a number of options facing us we do have to get the private sector involved much more and as we know from all the lobbyists that you met deputy O'Brien but also your time I take the point it was made earlier in respect of thank you Tisha your time is I do need to continue we move now to the public expenditure on housing thank you we have to try to do both whether it is a tax expense like share and subscribe and let us know your thoughts in the comments we'd love to hear from you