Public housing on public lands
Deputy Joan Collins criticised long-term State leasing of homes from funds and asked whether the Government would build 100,000 homes on public land. The Taoiseach said building social and affordable housing and releasing State land were priorities, while leasing was only a short-term measure.
The Taoiseach said a couple of weeks ago that the State should not be renting homes on a long-term basis from funds involved in the practice of bulk purchase of housing estates. He went on to say that he would like this practice to end in the long term. Last year, 1,440 homes were leased from local authorities. This year, as we now know, 2,400 homes will be leased at a cost of €1 billion over a 25-year period. The State will not own these homes and tenants could be evicted when the lease agreement ends. Is there is not a bit of déjà vu going on here in terms of what happened when the housing assistance payment, HAP, was introduced in 2014? We were told the scheme was only going to be a short-term arrangement. It started off with a cost of €0.5 million, we were told, but €543 million in State funding now goes into private landlords' pockets. Is this not an incredible situation for the State to be in and an incredible waste of public funding when we should be doing otherwise, namely, building houses? Does the Taoiseach agree that this is a consequence of the housing policy of his Government and successive Governments?
Comment on this
Will he now declare that he will bring in a radical action programme to build 100,000 homes on public lands?
Comment on this
First, as I have said, the core Government priority is to build houses, both social and affordable, and to release more State land to facilitate the building of houses and get more delivery in developing houses overall. In respect of HAP, that scheme has been there long before this Government was formed, going back, as the Deputy said, to 2014. It is a more expensive way than social leasing, it has been asserted to me. Be that as it may, I do not believe that leasing is the optimal way to provide social housing. In the immediate short term, however, it gives us the opportunity, given the shortage of direct builds, the need to build up capacity on direct builds and as part of the wider suite of measures in the intervening period, to ensure that over the next 18 months, or maybe 12 months, 2,400 families will get social housing. That is the priority.
Comment on this
When is the Government going to build public housing on public lands?