Vol. 1016 No. 6
62. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the action he plans to take to slow down the disorderly exit of accidental and semi-professional landlords from the private rented sector and its impact on rising levels of homelessness. [3576/22]
As the Minister knows, since 2017 there has been a net loss of 20,000 rental tenancies from the private rental sector. That equates to about 7,000 a year up to 2020. We do not have data from the Residential Tenancies Board for last year but the expectation is that the rate will continue. Given this loss of rental properties is one of the many factors contributing to the crisis in the private rental sector and is driving the recent upsurge in homelessness, will the Minister outline his plan to stop this disorderly exit of accidental and semi-professional landlords from the market?
The Deputy has rightly highlighted the ongoing issue of the exiting of many mom-and-pop landlords from the housing market. It is not a recent event but has continued for the past number of years. As he will know, the property rights of owners are protected under the Constitution and landlords need to be in a position to manage their property to suit their financial needs as they change with their particular life circumstances. Covid-19 has badly affected some landlords, and financial pressures may have forced them to sell a rental property. Some of the evidence we have indicates that this is the case, particularly with the rising values of house prices.
The exiting of landlords from the private rental sector is a consequence of multiple factors. A changing regulatory environment, which has been necessary to ensure a fair and effective residential rental sector that balances tenants' rights and landlords' responsibilities, has resulted in a challenging compliance framework for some. Covid-related protections were also necessary but they may have contributed to the decision of some to leave the sector. In other cases, the recent rise in house prices has enabled some landlords to take the opportunity to exit negative equity. As a consequence, many have taken the opportunity to unwind their investment.
The most effective way to assist renters in the medium to long term is to increase supply and accelerate delivery of housing for the private and social rental sectors. Our housing plan, Housing for All, sets out the Government's plan to increase supply and to deliver an average of 33,000 homes per year over the next decade. As the Deputy will know, the plan also brought forward the introduction of a new cost-rental sector, which we intend to expand this year and into the next and beyond, the legislative framework for which was set out in the Affordable Housing Act. I will address a couple of other issues in a supplementary response.
None of what the Minister said addressed the core question I asked. What is the plan to deal with the disorderly exit of semi-professional and accidental landlords from the market, something that has been in train for three years and will more than likely continue for four years? The argument that supply will tackle the problem simply does not add up. The Government's housing plan promises 6,500 new private rental homes, a target that will probably be reached around 2025 or 2026. However, we are losing 7,000 units a year. Therefore, it would take the Government three years to catch up the current loss and it would still be behind. If the Government reaches these targets, and the loss of properties to the market continues, the situation will continue to get worse. Sherry FitzGerald made it clear today that there are three times more exits from the private rental sector than there are entries to it. There are a range of strategies and actions that I and others have been urging the Minister to take but, like his predecessor, he has ignored them. What specifically will he do to slow the exit of these landlords from the private rental sector and tackle rising levels of family homelessness?
I struggle to find the range of measures the Deputy says he has proposed to assist landlords. In the 12-page document, which includes five pages of pictures, that the Deputy submitted on Housing for All the only mention of landlords is his proposal to commission the Housing Agency to do a report. The only other measure the Deputy has ever brought forward in relation to landlords was in his pre-budget submission. Sinn Féin wanted to impose a €400 tax on the mom-and-pop landlords, yet the Deputy now bemoans their loss to the sector. Let us be straight with people. The changes the Government bring forward must be calibrated to balance the rights of the property owner and the tenant. Throwaway comments and the demonisation of mom-and-pop landlords that the Deputy and others have engaged in have an effect. Proposals he has brought forward from time to time on extended three-year rent freezes and other measures scare the market. We need to build supply and cost-rental housing. I repeat to the Deputy that the only measure he suggested is for a report to be done on what is happening. The only other real measure he has proposed for landlords is to add a €400 tax on top of all the other bills they have.
What that shows is that the Minister has no plan and landlords will continue to sell up.
We have stated a fact though.
I have repeatedly called for four key policies. The Minister knows them but I will repeat them again. The first is to end the prohibition on local authorities buying properties with housing assistance payment, HAP, or rental accommodation scheme, RAS, tenants in situ when the landlord is selling. Many landlords who are leaving the market would be delighted for the local authority to purchase the property but the Government will not allow local authorities to purchase them with a sitting tenant. That is driving family homelessness and making the situation worse.
The second key policy is to allow buy-to-let landlords who availed of tax reliefs from the State at an earlier stage to sell the tenant with the tenant in situ. They got a break from the State and the return should be to sell to other landlords. Third, we have repeatedly called for tax reform for landlords. It is not acceptable that real estate investment trusts and large institutional landlords pay no tax, whereas many accidental and semi-permanent landlords pay very high rates.
We have not called for the commission of a report. What we have called for is much more specific. We want the Residential Tenancies Board and the Housing Agency to bring their expertise to bear on Government, which is clearly lacking, to produce a strategy, with the Government and Opposition, to stop the disorderly exit.
We have outlined our proposals. Does the Government have any proposals? What is its plan to stop this crisis?
Deputy Ó Broin's proposals are fairly threadbare - let us be straight about it. In the Deputy's submission, he proposes to commission "the Housing Agency to undertake research into the disorderly exit of landlords". That is it. The other measure is a €400 tax. What we are doing is delivering 300,000 new homes between now and 2030, including private rental properties, and rolling out cost rental at scale, for which we already have cost-rental affordable tenants in place. Last week, more tenants moved into their homes in Kildare in what was the second tranche of cost rental provision. We will deliver more than 1,750 new cost-rental homes in 2022 and more in each subsequent year. That is what we intend to do.
We must also increase supply across the board. We produced a plan, Housing for All, that invests €4 billion in new housing while the Deputy's submission suggests a €2.8 billion investment from Sinn Féin. Let us be honest with people. All Deputy Ó Broin has been doing is demonising landlords and now he is bemoaning the effect that has had. We need a stable rental market as well as affordable homes for working people, and that is what this Government is about to deliver.
63. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he plans to review the Derelict Sites Act 1990 and its operations; if so, the status of those plans; if his attention has been drawn to the Geo Directory Residential Buildings Report for Q4 of 2021 which has identified approximately 90,000 vacant residential properties and 20,000 derelict residential properties across the country; if his Department is considering or has plans to bring these properties back into active use; the steps taken by his Department to ensure the collection of outstanding derelict sites levies by each local authority; the guidance and or circulars that have been issued by his Department to each local authority in relation to the collection of the derelict sites levy and the manner in which this should be pursued; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3277/22]
66. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if, given his role in overseeing the vacant homes strategy, his attention has been drawn to the discrepancy between derelict units recorded in the GeoDirectory residential buildings report and those on the derelict sites register nationally; if his attention has been further drawn to the lack of implementation and collection of the derelict sites levy; and the action being taken to combat same. [3578/22]
As I hope the Minister of State would agree, the Derelict Sites Act 1990 is in very bad need of reform. The provisions of the Act are very worthy in theory but experience has shown that it is rarely used to good effect by local authorities. Derelict properties and, separately, housing that is vacant for some time needs to be the focus with regard to turning around properties in town and city centres and bringing them back into use for housing purposes. Are there plans to reform the Act to improve its utility for those purposes?
I propose to take Questions Nos. 63 and 66 together.
Local authorities have been provided with a number of powers and measures to deal with the issue of derelict properties both in larger urban settings and in smaller rural towns and villages. There also exists a framework of overarching policy and capital funding which provides support to development, including urban regeneration.
The Derelict Sites Act 1990 imposes a general duty on every owner and occupier of land to take all reasonable steps to ensure that the land does not become, or continue to be, a derelict site. The Act also imposes a duty on local authorities to take all reasonable steps, including the exercise of appropriate statutory powers, to ensure that any land within their functional area does not become, or continue to be, a derelict site. Local authority powers include requiring owners or occupiers to take appropriate measures on derelict sites, acquiring derelict sites by agreement or compulsorily, and applying a derelict sites levy on derelict sites. It is a matter for local authorities to determine the most appropriate use of the legislation within their respective functional areas.
Since 2018, my Department has requested local authorities to submit an annual return regarding the implementation of the Derelict Sites Act in respect of their functional areas and details of any new urban areas which it is proposed to prescribe for the purposes of the Act under section 21. These requests were conveyed by Circulars PL 08/2018, PL 08/2019, PL 10/2020 and PL 09/2021.
There are many reasons the number of properties on derelict sites registers may differ from the number identified on the GeoDirectory residential and commercial buildings database, including the fact that the Derelict Sites Act only applies to urban areas prescribed under section 21 of the Act. My Department continues to liaise with local authorities on the implementation of the Derelict Sites Act with a view to improving its effectiveness and continues to keep the relevant provisions under review. In this regard, in November 2021, my Department initiated a review of the Derelict Sites Act by requesting local authorities to identify issues and challenges that have arisen in the operation of the provisions of the Act and the derelict sites levy to date. The submissions received are now being examined with a view to further engagement with local authorities and to concluding the review in the current year.
I thank the Minister of State. I have some comments. Can he say when the review will be complete? This is really urgent. There is a mismatch between the register and the directory. There is no doubt about that. Nobody can say that the Derelict Sites Act is working. We know from looking around us in our own home areas that dereliction is creating significant social and economic scars in our town centres. Looking at the figures, my own home town of Drogheda accounts for approximately 1% of all vacant homes in the entire country. Dereliction is a massive problem. I give credit to groups such as Derelict Drogheda that are sequentially cataloguing some of these problems and issues. It shames us all that we do not have a defined route and plan to bring properties of this kind back into use and to prioritise them for housing. I know the Minister of State is working on his town centres first initiative. I am interested to see what his plans are and how the Derelict Sites Act can be changed to ensure that it has some utility in bringing homes into use. We must ensure that local authorities use that Act in a better fashion than at present.
I am taking this question on behalf of Deputy Ó Broin. The Department was before the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage today and its officials enlightened me, telling me that our cities have dereliction rates that are below average. I found that an astounding comment to make. I have asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, and I now ask the Minister of State, to come to Cork and walk around the city with me. I will show the Minister of State the dereliction and he can then tell me whether the rate is below average. Just to let him know, Cork City Council is trying to get things done. It is trying to get lighting for the Fairfield area, bollards removed from John F. Connolly Road and a disabilities officer but I am told that we do not have the funding. However, there is €3 million outstanding in uncollected derelict sites levies in Cork alone. There is €12.5 million outstanding across the State. The fact I got from the officials today was absolutely astounding. All three Ministers have to answer this question. There is not one official in the Department who is dedicated full-time to vacancy and dereliction. There should be a section dealing with it. There is not one person dealing with it full-time. There are 100,000 houses derelict or vacant but no one in the Department is looking after the matter. It is shocking.
I thank the Deputies for their questions. To respond to Deputy Nash, the review began in November 2021. We have received a number of submissions from right around the country. There is a workshop this Thursday that will examine the content of those submissions. I hope to make progress early this year.
I will also outline that there are a number of funding streams in place to tackle dereliction. That is important. These provide a carrot for owners of such properties to encourage them to develop them into residential units. There is a very significant project under way which aims to bring 2,500 units into use by 2025 through a local authority programme. There is also the urban regeneration and development fund, which is targeted and to which funding has been committed. It is very important that capital is committed early in the cycle, which we have done. There is also the repair and lease scheme, to which additional funding has been committed. This has been reformed. Record numbers have been brought in through that scheme in areas such as Waterford city, eliminating almost all emergency homelessness accommodation in bed and breakfast providers. We also have the buy and renew scheme under the Croí Cónaithe fund. We are also working on new regulations which I hope will be ready for next week. These will bring in planning exemptions for pubs and other properties being brought back into use as residential accommodation. The Department of Finance is also considering the vacant property tax.
It is worth noting that, between 2016 and 2019, of the 70,000 units delivered in the State, approximately 13,800 were reconnections or unfinished estates being completed. That shows the legacy challenge we are trying to meet. A large proportion of these units have come from the vacant and derelict sector. There is a great amount of work going on. We continue to engage with local authorities to ensure they are resourced to bring properties back into use as they are best placed to do so. I hope the towns first policy will enable them and support them in that work.
There is much talk of carrots but very little talk of sticks. We have waited far too long for a vacant sites tax and some form of "use it or lose it" levy that would be applied to derelict sites. I said earlier that the dereliction we see all around us shames us. It has significant societal, social and economic impacts. The derelict sites that are available to us present a great opportunity for renovation, refurbishment and being brought into use for housing. We speak a lot about developing new sites and even infill sites in towns and city centres. However, we do not focus as much as we ought to on derelict sites. I know the Minister has spoken publicly about the provision of grants of up to €30,000. Is the idea that this would be a grant to purchase a property or a grant to refurbish a property? Is it significant and substantial enough to enable us to tackle this issue comprehensively?
I am not sure if the Minister of State will remember but last May I asked him for an increase in funding for full-time vacant home officers in every local authority. At that time, he said that it would be inappropriate for the Government to intervene in local authority staffing. However, in November, the Department said that every local authority should have a full-time vacant homes officer. In other words, it took six months for the Minister of State to make up his mind on what I said last May. I appreciate him listening to me but he only increased the funding from €50,000 to €60,000. I suppose this speaks to how Sinn Féin brings forward solutions only for it to take months for the Government to listen. It sometimes takes years for it to listen to poor Deputy Ó Broin. However, when it does listen to us, that shows that we have the solutions. Here we are now.
The Minister of State accused me of speaking out of both sides of my mouth. Then he went away and implemented the policy that we asked him to. What I am saying now is that we are looking for full-time vacant home officers and full-time derelict home officers. We are seeking to end the scourge of dereliction because it is destroying communities like the one I represent right across the country. Does the Minister of State realise how difficult it is when people who do not have homes are passing empty homes?
I reiterate that a huge effort is being made right across the Government through the numerous schemes I have mentioned to bring vacant and derelict properties back into use. The State is serious about employing both a carrot and stick approach in that regard. Regarding the Croí Cónaithe cities fund to which the Deputy referred, it is aimed to have regulations issued shortly for a first-time buyer's grant to enable the purchasing of derelict properties. That scheme will be an asset to the State. Therefore, we have a great deal of work under way in that regard. There is, however, a great deal of hypocrisy going on with Deputy Gould. It is almost like a comic stand-up when he comes up laughing and joking
Check the minutes of the meeting.
The Deputy is the only one laughing here as far as I can see.
What do they say? The Minister of State said he could not do it and then he did it.
The Deputy is the only one laughing here, as far as I can see. In the first instance-----
Some of us are correct.
I ask the Deputy to let me continue without interruption, please. I did not interrupt the Deputy once. That is his problem. He keeps interrupting and is unable to listen. For someone talking about listening to vulnerable people in his constituency office, which I do every week, the Deputy finds it difficult to listen to people here. That surprises me. I see vulnerable people every week looking for the housing solutions we are working so hard to deliver, while I also see the Deputy's party engaging in the blocking of housing developments. That is happening right across the country, whether involving public housing on public land being blocked by the Deputy's party or numerous developments-----
Fianna Fáil voted down social housing in Cork in 2018.
I am referring to the Deputy.
The brother of the Taoiseach, the leader of the Fianna Fáil party, was one of the people who voted it down.
The Deputy's party is voting against numerous developments-----
Check the records of the council.
-----week after week.
Fianna Fáil voted down social housing in Cork.
The Deputy's party has one common thread on housing. It is oppose, oppose and oppose again.
No, that is not true.
That can be seen right across the city councils and our network of 31 local authorities. As I said about public houses on public land, Sinn Féin voted that down in Wicklow. That is a fact. The Deputy can dress it up anyway he likes and talk out of both sides of his mouth in this Chamber, but those are the facts.
Hear, hear.
64. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage his views on whether the increased reliance on turnkeys by local authorities, approved housing bodies, the Land Development Agency and the Housing Agency for the delivery of social and affordable housing as outlined in the Government’s new housing plan will inflate the cost of social and affordable housing and will put those public agencies in direct competition with private purchasers for the limited supply of private homes. [3577/22]
As the Minister is aware, his housing plan has a range of new measures and specifically for the delivery of social and affordable housing. One concern many of us have is that, certainly in the early years of this plan, there will be an increased reliance on turnkey affordable purchases of private sector developments. Does the Minister share this concern? If not, can he give us the reasons why he does not believe this is going to be a feature, especially this year and next year?
I thank the Deputy for his question. As he rightly said, under the Housing for All strategy, we confirm both the need and the intention to increase the supply, on average, to about 33,000 units per year. The strategy is, however, clearly based on increasing new supply across social, affordable and private housing from State-owned and private land. Our policy is to bring forward delivery in the shorter term by enabling supply that would not otherwise have been built. It is not about hoovering up things that have already been built but about enabling new supply. We are targeting the additional supply from unactivated sites, which otherwise may not have progressed. That ensures that we will not be competing with private purchasers for the limited, but thankfully increasing, supply that is currently on the market. We will instead increase supply across the board. That is our absolute focus.
The Housing for All policy is backed by an historically high level of investment of €20 billion over five years, or €4 billion plus per annum. We have set a target in that period to deliver 47,600 new-build social homes over the next five years, as well as providing nearly 29,000 affordable purchase and cost rental homes. As part of a much wider range of measures to achieve these objectives, including the development of a strong new-build pipeline from local authorities, several initiatives to ensure the delivery of affordable homes in the near term have been developed by me and my colleagues. These are targeted at bringing forward houses that would not have been built yet and at activating uncommenced planning permissions, thereby bringing forward new supply in the areas where the need for affordable housing is most acute. My Department and delivery partners constantly carry out monitoring to ensure that value for money is also achieved. Supported by this strategy, indications of increased construction activity are becoming evident. Some 30,724 residential units commenced in 2021, and that is a year-on-year increase of 42%. This overall increase in the supply, together with the measures in the Housing for All policy, is key to ensuring that home ownership is supported for both affordable and private purchase.
I understand the theory. The problem is that it is going to run into some significant problems in practice, particularly when we look at the pipeline. As the Minister is aware, 2020 is the last year for which we have figures, and half of all new-build social homes were turnkey units delivered by local authorities and approved housing bodies. The other half was partly Part Vs and partly direct builds. Given the pipeline in the social housing sector, it is difficult to see how that is going to ramp up in respect of direct delivery this year and next year. It may happen by the end of the plan, but not in its first years. The Minister has also added the affordable housing fund, the cost-rental equity loan, Project Tosaigh for the Land Development Agency, LDA, and the Croí Cónaithe cities fund, including forward purchase agreements for the Housing Agency for apartments in the cities.
Given the limited targets in the Minister's plan, it is hard to see how new-build activity developed by those agencies is going to deliver those targets. The pipeline is not there for this year and next year and probably not even into the year after. That means turnkey units and forward purchases are going to be required and those mechanisms often activate supply. While we may disagree with how this process may pan out, the question is, what are the Minister, his Department and those agencies going to do to ensure that there is not increased competition for turnkey units and forward purchases, thus pushing up prices for public housing delivery and squeezing out owner-occupier purchasers?
I assure the Deputy the last thing we want to do is to squeeze out owner-occupier first-time buyers. That is why every measure we put in place in the Housing for All policy, such as those mentioned by the Deputy, including the first home shared equity scheme, which will kick in at the end of quarter 2 and be able to help people to bridge the gap between the finance they have and what they need through the State taking an equity share, is a supply-side measure. We are advertising advanced purchasing arrangements now among all the local authorities to activate planning permissions that would not have been brought forward otherwise. We have had a decent response to Project Tosaigh operating through the LDA. Again, that is concerned with compact growth in areas in our cities, but not exclusively so, where we have issues with affordability.
Those are short-term supply measures as well. I assure the Deputy that the pipeline we have in social housing for the next several years is actually very strong. That is why we need local authorities and local authority members to continue to support the delivery of social housing. We approved at Cabinet only today the start of the construction phase to provide 1,047 homes at O'Devaney Gardens. That involves an investment by the State of just short of €135 million. I remind the Deputy that his party opposed this project in Dublin City Council, DCC. These are 1,047 new homes for working people.
Based on what the Cabinet announced today, unfortunately, not only will half those homes be unaffordable private units but, equally, the 22% of homes that are so-called affordable will also be way beyond the reach of ordinary people. What we want are affordable public homes on public land. In fact, the all-in cost of the affordable purchase in this regard, based on Cabinet information provided today, when the purchase cost and the affordable housing fund repayment is added in, is between €344,000 for one-bed units and €404,000 for three-bed units. That is not affordable housing for working people.
To return to the issue at hand, the difficulty is that if I were a developer with planning permission for 100 apartments in Dublin, I now have a wonderful opportunity because I can go to a local authority for a mixed social-affordable scheme, to an approved housing body for a cost rental equity loan, CREL, scheme and the LDA for a Project Tosaigh scheme. The LDA can, of course, pay more than the local authorities can because it does not have the same departmental cap ceilings. I could also go to the Housing Agency or any of the several funds which exist. Therefore, it is a sellers' market and that is going to push up the price developers will seek for those turnkey units, particularly this year and next year, as well as squeezing out owner-occupiers. Nothing the Minister has said has convinced me that he has a plan to deal with that prospect, if, as I suspect, it happens. I hope it does not but I would like to know that the Minister has a contingency plan to ensure that is the case.
We must increase apply across the board. I gave the example of the O'Devaney Gardens development, which will provide 1,047 homes. There is also Ballymastone in Donabate, which was also opposed, where there will be more than 1,000 homes. Then there is the Oscar Traynor Road project. Thankfully, because of this Government's affordable housing fund, we at last have agreement on that project in Dublin City Council to proceed with real homes for real people.
It is not affordable.
I want to assure the Deputy-----
They are not affordable. The Minister should be honest with people.
What we need to do is raise supply and bring about affordable homes. That is what this Government is doing. I know that will not suit the Deputy. It does not suit his political narrative.
Not at O'Devaney Gardens and Oscar Traynor Road it is not, with the greatest of respect.
Deputy Ó Broin and his party were happy for 41 years to see Oscar Traynor Road lie idle.
Fianna Fáil was in government during all of that period and refused to fund it. It sat on its hands, starved our local authorities of resources and would not fund the building.
The Sinn Féin Members just cannot take the truth this evening.
The Minister is giving us a shocking distortion of the truth.
They are continually interrupting. Any Minister who tries to answer any questions, they just try to shout us down. We on this side of the House will not be bullied. We are focused on delivering homes for people.
Just not affordable homes.
During the last oral questions just before Christmas, Deputy Ó Broin actually asked in respect of Oscar Traynor Road to set aside the public spending code that governs value for money in this country. He said to set it aside.
There is no value for money when we are paying Bartra €400,000 for a social house. That is not value for money.
I am just being honest with people. The Deputy is being found out.
The Minister is responsible for a breach of the public spending code.
65. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of affordable purchase homes that were delivered in 2021; the target for 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3555/22]
On the very subject of delivery of affordable purchase homes, how many affordable purchase homes were delivered in 2021? What was the target? How many affordable purchase homes will be delivered in 2022? Is the Minister confident that we will meet that target?
We have a challenge. I thank the Deputy for the question. The Affordable Housing Act 2021, which I commenced in August 2021, laid the provisions for the introduction of two new affordable purchase schemes. This will see new homes made available via local authorities, the Land Development Agency and a new national first home scheme. The measures will primarily assist first-time buyers or those under the fresh start principle trying to purchase homes but unable to secure sufficient finance to do so. These will be very important for delivery of housing this year.
I have confirmed that 36,000 affordable purchase homes will be delivered in the period to 2030 and have put in place an unprecedented level of funding to do so. While Ó Cualann Cohousing Alliance, with county council support, delivered some affordable purchase schemes in 2021, the Covid-19 pandemic and associated restrictions on construction sites had a significant impact on anticipated delivery of homes.
Fortunately, significant progress has been made that will see very many more affordable homes made available in 2022. The first of these homes will be made available next month in Boherboy, County Cork. The advancement of these schemes with the funding we are providing has allowed us in 2022 to set a target to deliver approximately 2,500 affordable homes for purchase this year. That does not include the cost rental and affordable rental homes. That figure will increase incrementally over the years to come.
The Minister might clarify the following. He said that Ó Cualann delivered affordable purchase homes in 2021. How many of those were occupied in 2021? As the Minister knows, according to the Parliamentary Budget Office, home ownership among adults of prime working age has collapsed since 2012. House prices grew by a staggering 77% up to 2020, while during the same period wages only grew by 23%. The Parliamentary Budget Office says that on an international scale, housing affordability in Ireland is rated as severely unaffordable. People struggling to pay unaffordable rents and struggling to buy a home want to know what the Government is doing to make housing affordable. In the 2020 general election, the Minister promised 10,000 affordable homes each year. In the two years since then, the Government has not delivered in terms of affordable purchase homes. How many affordable purchase homes were occupied last year?
We have delivered the most comprehensive affordable housing legislation that any Government has ever brought forward. That affordable housing legislation was supported by all in this House with the exception of eight Deputies. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan was one of those eight Deputies who voted against affordable housing for working people. He voted against cost rental, against affordable purchase delivered by local authorities and against the Home First shared equity scheme. Let us put that on record.
We are not going to turn ten years of undersupply around overnight. We need to put the building blocks in place like the Affordable Housing Act to deliver affordable housing for working people. We are going to do that this year. On top of that, we want to develop State-owned land, some of which we have mentioned here, some of the unfortunately infamous sites. We brought forward the Land Development Agency Act, revised the Land Development Agency and capitalised it to be able to deliver public homes on State-owned land. I remind the Deputy that in Cork and Dublin, it is 100% social and affordable. Again that is legislation that he and his party opposed. It is his absolute right to do so should he wish. However, without the policies in place backed by the money we have put in place through Housing for All, we are not going to deliver any affordable homes. We are delivering them. This year will see a significant number of affordable homes delivered from a base of zero.
I will ask the Minister for a third time how many affordable purchase homes were actually occupied in 2021. He has not answered that question. He might give me an answer. The Minister knows well why I did not support the Affordable Housing Bill. I do not support the Government's definition of affordability as not being related to incomes but instead being based on market prices. For the record, the Minister's party on Dublin City Council voted against zoning to provide affordable homes. His party, Fine Gael and nearly all the Green Party councillors with one notable exception voted against it. The facts are that according to Dublin City Council over the next number of years almost 70% of new households will not be able to afford to buy or rent a home in Dublin city. Almost 70% are going to be reliant on social or affordable homes. That is absolutely shocking. Policies that continue to inflate rents and house prices are causing that problem. We know from the Ó Cualann model that affordable homes can be delivered, three-bed semi-detached, at the rate of about €260,000 as is happening in the Minister's constituency. That needs to be rolled out across the country at scale. For the last time, how many affordable purchase homes were actually occupied last year?
Dun Emer in Lusk, to which the Deputy referred, with this Government's support through the affordable housing fund, will be delivering homes for between €166,000 and €266,000. In Ballymastone in north County Dublin, there will be over 1,000 homes. I remind the Deputy that will include 258 social homes and 258 affordable purchase homes. The Deputy's colleagues in Fingal County Council actually voted against that.
They should all be affordable and social.
The Deputy and his colleagues will always find a reason to oppose it. Regarding Oscar Traynor Road, they opposed the deal again there for effectively 40% social, 40% cost rental and 20% affordable purchase.
There is no cost rental in Oscar Traynor Road. That is not true.
They are some of the biggest land hoarders in the country.
The Social Democrats opposed it. The Deputies opposite cannot contain themselves this evening.
The Minister just will not stick to the facts.
Unfortunately people have found them out on this because they are not going to be able to deliver affordable housing for working people without the Government supporting it, which we are doing through Housing for All.
The Minister has not answered my question.
We are going to deliver a significant number of affordable purchase homes this year which I have outlined to the Deputy in my answer.
How many last year?
On top of that we are going to deliver cost rental, which the Deputy opposed by voting against the Affordable Housing Bill.
How many?
