Paul Murphy
Question:6. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government if he will use public land for public housing and halt the privatisation of public land banks and public housing. [17643/20]
View answerThursday, 23 July 2020
Questions (6)
Oral answers (6 contributions)
"Public homes on public land" is the demand of the housing movement, a movement which has seen what the disaster of allowing developers to make a killing from public land means. I offer the example of O'Devaney Gardens. This promise made its way into the Green Party manifesto and, interestingly, the Minister of State has uttered this slogan twice so far during our half hour of discussion. However, the indications are that the privatisation of public land is set to continue with the development in Killinarden under the authority of South Dublin County Council. Does the Minister mean public homes on public land? Will he commit to reversing that privatisation or is it just sloganeering?
Deputy Paul Murphy asks if someone is just sloganeering. I thank him for his question. I say that in jest and honestly do not mean any disrespect. The programme for Government commits the State to playing a greater part in the provision of affordable and social housing, with a focus on those earning low and middle incomes and the development of sustainable mixed-tenure communities.
These principles will guide our housing policy and the work of the Land Development Agency, LDA, in assembling strategic sites in urban areas and ensuring the sustainable development of social and affordable homes for rent and purchase. This will include ensuring that public housing rental stock on public land is under the control of local authorities, approved housing bodies or other similar bodies.
The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform issued an update to the public spending code in October 2019 to include a requirement that prior to seeking approval from the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to dispose of lands and buildings on the open market, all non-commercial State bodies must first consult with the LDA on the appropriate disposal of those lands. I will further strengthen that requirement by way of the commitment in the programme for Government that any State lands being offered for sale will automatically be offered first to the LDA, which will be a very different agency from what was previously proposed. This will mean that if such lands can be acquired by the LDA, it will acquire them, thereby ensuring they remain in the ownership of the State and are used to provide appropriate housing. I intend for that LDA legislation to come to the House in the next session. My Department and I are working on it with Cabinet colleagues. As I said, I want to see public homes on public land.
I think the Minister engaged in a bit of a sleight of hand in his response - the same sleight of hand in which the programme for Government engages - when he said he will ensure that "public housing rental stock on public land is under the control of local authorities, approved housing bodies or other similar bodies". The point about the slogan "public homes on public land" is not primarily about who has control of public homes, although that is important. The point is that all of the public land that exists in the State should be used for public homes. None of it should be privatised at a time when we have some 100,000 people on housing waiting lists across the State. When we have enough public land to build 100,000 homes, we should be building public homes as opposed to giving developers an opportunity to profit. I will give the example of South Dublin County Council, which put the construction of 500 houses in Killinarden out to tender. Only 20% of those homes will be social housing and the so-called affordable homes are set to cost up to €290,000, which is completely unaffordable for most people.
We want to get to a stage where it is not a question of whether people's homes are public or private in this country but that they are simply people's homes. We want to ensure we are delivering both types of housing. If we look at the Shanganagh development in Dublin, nearly 600 units have been approved by the LDA and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council and all of them will be social and affordable homes. That is what we want to see in most places. There may be instances where that exact model will not suit, but I am saying that this Government will be acutely focused on ramping up our public housing stock, with an emphasis on building new public homes. That is what I want, namely, a clear emphasis on building public homes for our people, like what was done by governments in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and onwards. That can be done and it is what we want to do.
At the same time, I also want to deliver affordable homes for working people through affordable purchase and affordable rental mechanisms. We have started to do that and I will bring forward new schemes later this year. I intend that we will see homes being delivered through that model next year. I have said from the very beginning that we must work with the local authorities to get our public housing stock up. That is what we intend to do and what we will focus on.
The slogan "public homes on public land" should mean using all public land for public homes. In the case of Killinarden, even setting aside for a moment the unaffordability of the so-called affordable homes, 400 of those 500 homes will be sold by the developer for whatever price the developer wants for private profit. Does the Minister agree with that and, if not, will he halt the sale of the land? The scale of the housing crisis is such that a one-bedroom apartment in Exchange Hall in Tallaght has gone up for rent for €1,700 per month. The situation is absolutely out of control. The private market will not deliver what is needed and it will not resolve this crisis. The only answer is significant public investment in the building of public housing. The solution is to make public housing available for all as opposed to continuing to provide the opportunity for private developers to profit from the crisis that exists in housing. If the Minister is not willing to give a commitment that he will not privatise any public land, then what he is saying is just empty sloganeering.
Our job is to deliver homes for our people through various mechanisms and that is what we will do. Our focus has to be on driving down homelessness and continuing to focus on accommodation for singles. Approximately 60% of adults who are homeless are single and we do not have enough accommodation for them. That is why I put out a call this week to all local authorities - I assume the Deputy has been in contact with his own local authority on this matter - to ensure that they buy homes to put into public stock. That is being done right now. It is only three weeks into this Government and we are very focused on tackling homelessness and providing homes for those who need them most. Some 50 large families in this country have been homeless for four or five years because there is no suitable accommodation for them. We have to focus on those types of issues. I have spent the first three weeks in office meeting with people from homeless charities all over this city and county. In the next few weeks, I will be meeting people from all over the country. I am acutely aware of how important it is for us to provide homes for our people and that is what we intend to do. I say again that this will clearly be based on the principle of public homes on public land.