Brian Stanley warns of rent hikes and housing crisis in County Leish

There's a tradition that I'm raising which is house prices and the availability of housing and in County Leish house prices are up, rents are up, homelessness are up and notices to quit are up. Despite the best efforts of the council which is a good active housing programme, the homeless figures increased by 60% when you take the December figures this year compared to last year. The government social housing targets for 2025 were 10,000, a low enough modest target but in the first nine months of the year just 3,143 were constructed, 31%. Cost rental and affordable to buy targets weren't met, just 925 cost rental and 563 affordable purchases were delivered. Rents in Leish and new tenancies are up according to DAF surveys by 12.1% in one year. I can tell you this, that a small house in Kilminchy out in the suburbs of Port Leish is advertised for €2,100 per month. That's over 500 quid a week. Workers cannot afford that and it's just way ahead of what's over what people can budget for. House prices to purchase are up 60% on average compared to 2020. Notices to quit, and I don't know if you're getting this in your offices but I'm starting to get it. Notices to quit are being issued at the rate of a number every day I've seen coming in the door, and there's been a sharp rise in doors since Christmas. Some rental housing is not yet registered with the RTB, and the tenancy, there's no tenancy agreement in place, and a notice to quit can just be verbal. I saw one last week given to a girl, and it was just by text, and before you tell me this is illegal, I know it's illegal, the tenants know it's illegal, but tenants can't complain because they're in such a vulnerable position and they're trying to get permission to stay there longer. So renters in some areas are going to face a 10, 20 and 30% hike on the 1st of March and after the 1st of March, and Leish will be one of them areas. Rents and new tenancies can be then set at the highest rate of the market, the highest rate, and I just read out one case to you, and thereafter 2% every year on top of that. And there's a particular cohort, Minister, a particular cohort of low and middle income workers, workers who are generally earning between £35,000 and £65,000, they can't keep up with the rent hikes, and they can't get on a local authority housing waiting list because they're over the income threshold, but they're having sufficient income or savings to get a mortgage. And delivery of cost rental and affordable to purchase homes are key to sorting out this. We need to be able to get them into a situation where they can either buy an affordable home or rent them. So you need to scale up affordable and cost rental housing. So will your government now take action to head off the inevitable sharp rent hikes on the 1st of March and thereafter for workers and families that won't be able to afford? Will your government and the Housing Minister increase the number of cost rental and affordable to purchase homes being constructed in County Leish and other counties? And can your department and Department of Local Government review income thresholds for rent of Council housing to allow more low-income households to get on that ladder? Thank you. Minister Burke. Thank you. Thank you, Laskan Corlan. Thank the Deputy for his question. Over the negotiation of our capital plan, the Government took a view that we have clear priorities. And critically, we know in an economy, if everything is a priority, nothing is a priority. And in the €19.1 billion that we are going to spend this year, there are four clear priorities. Housing is number one. And the enablers of housing in water, waste water and energy costs and transportation, which is key to unlock our housing. Because I know every single person in this State is one of the critical things. You have to see a trajectory for owning your own home, for getting the keys to your own home or to be supported in accommodation if you have not the means to do so. And that's why this Government has really worked to ensure we are prioritising housing. And if you look at the data, again, looking at the CSO data that was published there just at Christmas, apartment completions are up 30% from year-on-year the first three quarters of 2025 compared to the previous year. Other scheme dwellings, significant increase, 12,200 for schemes and single dwellings, one-off houses, about 4,136. And if you look at our first-time buyers at record levels, 27,000 drawdowns in mortgages to September, 60% of the market share. And that's the balance we had a huge challenge in reversing over the last seven years, where now we have first-time buyers at that level of drawdowns in the market share. At this point in time, we have 29,000 social housing units that are in varying stages of completion in the cycle that will be coming into our economy. And we also know that in terms of our first-time buyers, that we have 24,335 in the first three quarters of the year, which is up 13% year-on-year. And that's why the Government is really focused on making the changes that are going to bring more affordable housing into the economy, to ensure that we have options for people who want secure tenure from renting in terms of our cost rental model for those who are most vulnerable in social housing, and also the opportunity to buy and own your own home, like the First Home Scheme, which gives that opportunity as well as the Help to Buy Scheme, which has helped thousands of families right across their economy get the keys and realise their ambition of owning their home. So I can absolutely assure you, Deputy, this is one area that is being supported by record capital on behalf of the Government and to ensuring that people get that opportunity. And year-on-year, you are going to see huge improvements, as the data shows. You only have to look at the CSO data. It is the gold standard. And if you go around the country and look at the construction sites where people can see diggers on the ground, builders there, housing being delivered, which is at the highest quality it ever has been in this state. Mr Stanley. Aye, and you have quoted different sets of figures from CSO, and I am quoting figures from the Department of Housing and Local Government. And what I want to say to you is that, yes, it has to be a priority, but you need to scale up the delivery of cost rental and affordable to buy for that wage of people, workers and families who are caught just above the threshold for social housing, but below the level of income achievable to get a mortgage. And one of the things I would say to you, and I have said it to a number of successive ministers for housing here, is we need to reduce the bureaucracy around the construction of social, affordable and cost rental housing. We need to work to standard plans, standard plans that this is how the big developers are doing it. They are doing it and they are selling the houses like hot buns. There is no problem with that. People don't mind if their house and leash looks the same as it does in Cork. And the department, the department insisting on councils starting with a blank canvas for every scheme is not the way to go, because it is costly, with architect's fees, etc. And it slows up production of houses. We need to mass produce, we need to mass produce affordable to buy and cost rental housing. That is the message I am giving you here today. It will save money, it will save time and it will get people housed. We need to house those people who are squeezed in that middle cohort. Thank you Deputy. Minister Bourke. Thank you Alaskan Cora. And the government has taken a number of actions right across 2025 and into 26 to try and speed up construction, ensuring that we are getting high quality housing into the marketplace. We have revised the national planning framework which ensures that we have the infrastructure matched with the zone land to ensure that we are getting those high quality houses. We have obviously increased the amount of funding for purchase of local authority housing, which is key to ensure security of tenure for those who fall into a position where their property is being sold. And we also have increased significant investment in our state utilities, in Irish water, to ensure we have the infrastructure and allowing developer-led initiatives, again trying to speed up the time frame of which we can deliver housing. So I can absolutely assure you in terms of cost rental, in terms of affordable housing, social housing, it is a fact that we are at record levels, not seen since the 1970s in terms of social housing, but also in terms of since the records go back to 2007, in relation to first-time buyers coming into the economy. And this government is critically supporting first-time buyers to get their keys to the new home, which is vastly different to what other politicians offer in this stall. They want to pull the rug from under them, we want to support them.