Chris Andrews
Labour Panel · Sinn Féin · Ireland
“I want to move an amendment to No. 1 on the Order Paper, proposing an orderly winding down of the accommodation recognition payment scheme in a way that is fair and efficient. I note today is the last day of Dáil and Seanad sittings before the summer recess.”
“The Government can point to housing and claim that there are huge successes. There is only success for the wealthy, the well-off, the developers and the landlords. They are all delighted with Government policy.”
“Government will say, "Look at the positives", but there are a huge amount of challenges. You need not look any further than the housing crisis. Of course, the Government will point to an increased number of housing developments. However, those housing developments are for the very well-off.”
“We supported the development of housing on the Glass Bottle site. We worked hard to ensure to get more social housing. Unfortunately, the Government would not do that. Now it seems that the so-called "affordable housing" on the Glass Bottle site will be unaffordable.”
“I move amendment No. 14: In page 7, between lines 25 and 26, to insert the following: “Annual report 11. The Minister shall, within the first six months of the year, lay before both Houses of the Oireachtas a report outlining the application of this Act, providing an update on— (a) how many successful actions were brought under section 14…”
“I move amendment No. 2: In page 4, between lines 4 and 5, to insert the following: “ “settlement service” means a service provided in whole or in part within a postal code or relevant occupied territory to which this Act applies;”.”
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“The only way we are going to solve the housing crisis is by delivering public housing on a massive scale to bring down private sector rents and ensure that no one is left sleeping on the streets or in a hostel. This Bill is a small step forward towards that goal and I hope this House will support it at a later stage.”
“Communities in the inner city are experiencing the worst side of the housing crisis. Families are living in damp, overcrowded conditions only fit to be condemned and pulled down. Communities in areas like Ringsend, Pearse Street and Kevin Street are the heart of this city. These communities are facing neglect and the public – ordinary working families – are being priced out of housing in the inner city. We are seeing a generation of people being forced to abandon the community they know and grew up in in order to try to find a home a long distance from the inner city. It is ordinary people like this who make the inner city. Without them, Dublin will be and would be a shell of a city. We need to amend legislation to ensure public housing is delivered in communities most under pressure.”
“We have seen the continual use of this loophole by developers seeking to avoid their Part V obligations. This is particularly relevant in the inner city of Dublin and other highly populated areas across the State. When we see large commercial developments of up to 50 units being exempted from providing public housing on the basis that their sites are particularly small at street level, it is clear that the existing legislation is flawed. This is a common-sense change that would have been put in place when the height limits in Dublin were raised some years ago by the then Minister, Eoghan Murphy. Developers should be held to their obligations to the community on the basis of the true size and scale of their developments and not on the arbitrary assessment of acreage.”
“I want to join the Cathaoirleach on sending sympathies to the extended White family. Mary was someone with a great vision, determination and energy. She did not put up with any chit-chat or guff. She got straight to the point. She was a strong republican, as is her husband Padraic. I would like to extend my sympathies to the White family. I want to propose an amendment to the Order of Business: "That No. 13 be taken before No. 1." I refer to the Planning and Development (Provision of Public Housing) Bill 2026, which has been put down by the Sinn Féin Senators. This is a simple Bill. It is to ensure and protect the provision of public housing, removing an exemption from Part V obligations for high-density development sites of less than 0.1 ha.”
“In the meantime, Dublin City Council needs to be transparent with what it is doing with this revenue. It should ensure, at the very least, that it is invested in the social housing that desperately needs it.”
“Essentially, what is being said is that the people already struggling the most in our society need to foot the bill for the State's failure to meet its own tenancy obligations and that the people living in some of the worst housing conditions in the State need to pay more for the privilege of living with constant leaks, damp, rats, sewage and every other maintenance issue under the sun. There is no clear plan for how these increases will actually result in better maintenance of public housing and there have been no real commitments regarding how this money will result in a new single improved service. The Government should be funding Dublin City Council enough in order that it can properly maintain social housing and build new units, rather than pushing that burden onto those who are barely able to get by as it is.”
“It is disgraceful the council has made this decision, which is completely unfair to the thousands of tenants living in unacceptable conditions. Labour Party, Green Party, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Independent councillors all voted to increase the rent for the council's tenants, saying this additional revenue is needed to provide necessary maintenance work. Now, nobody believes for one second that maintenance standards are going to improve under Dublin City Council.”
“Last week, Dublin City Council, approved housing body, AHB, and HAP tenants received letters from the council saying rents are being increased from 6 April. These increases are in spite of the council not providing the bare minimum in terms of services or facilities. Conditions for residents in flats are lamentable. Tenants in this city are too often living in tiny and overcrowded conditions, with constant dampness and mould and with so many maintenance issues not being addressed by the council. Now, they are going to be charged more money by the council, which admits it is not able to provide the basic services residents deserve and need. Rents are already too high across the city and the cost-of-living crisis is out of control.”
“I thank the Minister of State for coming in. Before he responds, I wish to acknowledge and welcome two groups of visitors from Wexford and Laois with the Ceann Comhairle, Verona Murphy, and Deputy William Aird. They are very welcome. Normally, school-going visitors do not get any homework, but they look as though their schooldays are over, so they will just have to suck it up.”
“That is the modus operandi of the Government - plough along, continue making mistakes and do not take on any good ideas that Independent Senators have. This amendment is not unreasonable. I am curious as to why the Minister would not accept it because, as Senator McCarthy said, we have to know how policies being put in place now impact residents in the future. I can tell the Minister that residents in my constituency and across the country are very fearful about what is going to happen. To give an example, rents in Galway, which are currently €1,302 a month, will soar to €4,020 per month. This is based on an average RTB figure as it is weighted, so it is more accurate than a simple average of the other figures in that graph. A proposal like this is not unreasonable. If you are in the private sector, reviews are always done.”
“It shows there is a two-tier society being created and Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are creating and pushing ahead with increasing the gap between the haves and the have-nots. This is Senator Aubrey McCarthy's amendment, not a Sinn Féin or Labour Party amendment. The Senator is an Independent and his amendment states: Within two years of commencement of this Act, the Minister shall publish a report examining the impact of this Act has on the rental market. The report shall be laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas. That seems reasonable. How can anyone find fault with that? It is not unreasonable to expect a review. The other amendments are the same. How could anybody find fault with a review? The Government wants to just plough ahead making mistake after mistake without reviewing anything.”
“I was not critical of the units. I was critical of the cost of the units on the glass bottle site. Rents there are between €2,500 and €3,500 per month. Senator McCarthy mentioned Spencer Dock where someone he knows was paying over €3,500 for a one-bedroom apartment. How is that affordable for any working family or anybody in the inner city who worked on the front line during the pandemic, ensuring society continued? None of the families living in Pearse House, Countess Markievicz House, Whelan House or O'Rahilly House in Ringsend can afford those rents. They cannot afford to pay the rents that are being expected and charged on the glass bottle site. They are being excluded from their own community, and that is fundamentally wrong.”
“We are discussing housing. We are clear, as were the previous speakers, that we are all committed. The Minister has just acknowledged, and Senator Stephenson has just said, that we do not doubt the Minister's belief that he is going to make positive changes. We do not disagree with the Minister's beliefs or doubt his integrity. We disagree with this Bill. We have outlined clearly yesterday and today why the decision not to accept these amendments is going to make the Bill worse. To clarify, I did not bemoan the lack of apartments on the glass bottle site. I bemoaned the fact that they are not going to be affordable for ordinary working families across the inner city. They are completely unaffordable. On the suggestion that we are giving out about housing on the glass bottle site, I was part of a campaign for a long time-----”
“This is thanks to Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael councillors who are putting up rents at a time when people cannot afford it. The cost of living is going through the roof so it is very difficult for everybody.”
“People with disabilities are €1,400 down after the previous budget, so where will they find it? Where will an individual working and living with a disability and in accommodation find the extra money that rents will increase by? Such people are already down, so it will increasingly put pressure on people with disabilities. It is inevitable that individuals with disabilities will find themselves before the RTB. The numbers of people in front of the RTB will clearly increase. I made a few comments there. Senator Cosgrove mentioned funding and the Minister said local authorities have to address the issues themselves and not keep looking for more and more money. Unfortunately, the council does not have the funding it needs. It is now raising the rents.”
“Yes, all right. In regard to the RTB, the Minister said there is significant funding but the RTB was set up by a Fianna Fáil Government. Yet the Minister claimed Sinn Féin was looking to divest powers from councillors to organisations like the RTB. That is a bit ironic given that the Minister's Department set it up so I am not sure how he can blame Sinn Féin for divesting power to the RTB when Sinn Féin has not been in government. We did not set up the RTB, so I wanted to clarify that. The Minister mentioned security of tenure and how important it is. Everybody agrees that it is important. It is so important we have security of tenure, but this will not give any huge comfort to tenants who cannot afford the rent because of a lack of affordability.”
“You are either in the top tier and the Government will back you - the Government will support Irish institutional property companies and investment funds - or you are just stuck in Pearse House expected to put up with whatever the Government thinks you deserve. The Government does not think the residents in Pearse House, Markievicz House, Beech Hill and Rathmines Avenue deserve very much because the conditions they are expected to live in are absolutely horrendous. It should be noted that at the Kevin Street site, there are plans to vacate the Civic Offices and then build on-----”
“Many families are caught because they cannot get onto the Dublin City Council housing list due to their income as they are working. They are doing everything right and are important pillars and parts of the community. They are working as electricians, gardaí or whatever and they cannot get on the housing list and cannot afford to rent in this community. Gardaí and teachers cannot afford to move into the Irish Glass Bottle site. We will not see teachers living in a one-bedroom apartment in the Irish Glass Bottle site because they cannot afford the prices. When the Government is slapping itself on the back and telling us there is a great increase in the number of apartments, that is all very well if you are part of the top tier of Irish society. That is the way it seems to be.”
“Those families will be living in overcrowded conditions for generations more because, given the rent they are expected to pay, they cannot afford to rent so they will live at home because there is not the social housing. On middle incomes, they cannot afford to rent accommodation on the Irish Glass Bottle site, somewhere that was an intrinsic part of the maritime working class community that is Ringsend. That is being gentrified and this Government is pushing ahead with the gentrification of the inner city. Many young people cannot afford to even have a family because they cannot move out of home and cannot afford a one-bedroom flat or apartment. Where will they go? They will be stuck with their parents in increasingly overcrowded conditions.”
“It is all very well saying 38.7% of new apartments but the vast majority of them are not affordable, certainly not in this area and certainly not in the inner city. I see the flats just off Pearse Street in Markievicz House. There are families in Pearse House, which is the regeneration scheme the Government pulled and now sounds like it is trying to blame the council for doing it because it said the council should be responsible, and it is responsible and has been looking for solutions, but the council cannot do it on its own and the Government knows that. The council needs funding from the central Exchequer to regenerate Pearse House, and the Government is not willing to step up to the plate and ensure families in Pearse House, Markievicz House, Conway Court and Macken Villas have decent sized accommodation. They have been let down.”
“Families who have been living and working in the community for generations were on the front line during the Covid pandemic. They were servicing the hospitals and the food centres. They were doing front-line work and delivering services to ensure that everybody else was able to get on with life. Their incomes or those of their children are nowhere near enough. As a result, they are destined to live in overcrowded housing for decades. The 350 public social housing units that I hope Dublin City Council will get on the site will be a drop in the ocean. It will not have any significant impact for families living in Kevin Street, Ringsend and the inner city. What we need is affordability.”
“In Ringsend, Pearse Street and Kevin Street and right across inner city Dublin, they cannot afford to pay. I went to the Irish Glass Bottle site a few weeks ago and viewed a one-bedroom apartment. It was nothing to write home about. Pretty ordinary, I would say. It is obviously nice, new, bright and clean. There is a small indoor cinema that people can hire and bring their friends to and there is a gym for exercise. However, the reality is that the cost of renting a one-bedroom apartment there is €2,500 a month. My understanding is that it would require the salary of two Senators to afford to rent a one-bedroom apartment on the Irish Glass Bottle site, and Senator's salaries are not too shabby. The salary of one Senator would not be enough to rent a one-bedroom on the Irish Glass Bottle site. For me, that is insane.”
“Low- and middle-income families will certainly not be able to afford them. There was a two-bedroom apartment on the Shore Club, right next door to the Irish Glass Bottle site, on sale for almost €1 million, which is insane. A one-bedroom apartment was almost €700,000. Those apartments are not affordable to those on ordinary incomes or families living in places like Pearse Street, Ringsend and Kevin Street, in the south inner city and the north inner city. Many of those people made their homes in Ringsend and stayed in the inner city when it was not a popular choice. The area around the docklands was derelict for so long but it has become fashionable now. The local community are being told that they are not welcome, basically, and it is Government policy that is deciding that. It is pricing ordinary families out of the housing market.”
“The vast majority of those apartments will be in and around the urban centres, such as Dublin. I cannot imagine there will be too many apartments built in west Limerick or in Cavan. Most of that supply will be in Dublin. I think that is a fair comment. The difficulty with all those apartments in that 38.7% increase is that they are not affordable for ordinary people living on Pearse Street or in Ringsend, or even young families in Sandymount. They cannot afford to have their children rent those places. There will be from 3,500 to 3,800 homes built on the Irish Glass Bottle site, of which 350 will be social and 550 affordable, with the rest at market rates. In fact, it is questionable how affordable the affordable apartments on the Irish Glass Bottle site will be and whether ordinary working families will be able to afford them.”
“The Government has been taken hostage by the vulture funds and large investors. This Bill is another example of that. The Minister might comment on whether he will invest and increase funding for the RTB.”
“We need a commitment to invest in the RTB in light of what will happen in the coming months and years. Clearly, rents are going to go up. As I said yesterday, the Government is telling renters that it will reduce rents by allowing landlords to increase them. That is what Lorcan Sirr said, not me and not Sinn Féin. He is not a political representative. He is independent and evidence-based. That is really important to acknowledge. It is not Sinn Féin or the Opposition that has said this; an independent academic has said the Government is telling people it will reduce rents by allowing landlords to put up rents. That sums up this Bill. It is allowing one law for the wealthy, vulture funds, institutional investors and CEOs of Irish institutional property companies who have free access to these Houses. This is not my first time saying this.”
“The tenants were devastated when the regeneration programme was pulled. They have asked to meet the Minister. It is disappointing that he would not meet them. He should meet them. It is only fair that he does so.”
“There are over 1,000 people on the waiting list for a one-bedroom flat or apartment in area M, which covers Dublin 2, 4 and 6. It is ridiculous. People are living in crowded accommodation. They cannot afford to rent. When they do rent, they are at the mercy of the landlord and the RTB producing and delivering a service and adjudicating in a fair and balanced way. I mentioned Pearse Street. Pearse House residents were waiting for regeneration, but stage 2 of a regeneration plan was pulled by the Government. The Government has now said it will do deep retrofitting which will not, of course, increase the size of the flats. People will still be living in tiny boxes. It will not address many of the problems. Raw sewage comes up and there are leaks in the infrastructure in Pearse House.”
“With that funding, it can provide a service for tenants. It is already under pressure. I have had a number of tenants contact me. I know the offices of all my colleagues in the Chamber have been inundated with matters involving tenants, for example, in HAP properties. People have issues with HAP where the landlord has withheld deposits. The RTB deals with a huge variety of issues, and it does not have the funding to deal with them properly. It is important. The Irish Glass Bottle, IGB, site is obviously a high-end development in which there will eventually be 3,800 new homes, and 350 of them will be social housing, which, of course, will be very welcome to the local community. However, it is only a drop in the ocean compared with what the Ringsend-Irishtown-Pearse Street community need and deserve.”
“In many ways, it is a conflict of interest in terms of the council adjudicating on conditions in local authority flat complexes. It does not make sense for local tenants who put up with dampness and mould and rat infestations. The council is expected to deal with that, but it does not deal with it. It talks to the residents. If a tenant goes in to complain about mould on their wall and their children have some sort of health condition, the council official will come out and give them a cloth and some bleach. It is unfair that they do not have access to the RTB. The RTB would be much more independent than Dublin City Council. It is like the Garda investigating the Garda, or politicians investigating politicians. It never works out well, and it does not work out well for council tenants. The RTB clearly needs to get much more funding.”
“In relation to this particular amendment, again, I have concerns that there is going to be a huge increase in the number of people seeking to access the services of the RTB. As it is, the numbers applying for adjudication in the RTB are clearly increasing. That is unlikely to dwindle any time soon, especially with the measures in this Bill. Quite a number of people have contacted me with concerns they have about delays in meeting with the RTB and getting adjudication. Is the plan that there will be increased resources allocated to the RTB? Like I said, many people have contacted me in this regard. The RTB is already under pressure. A lot of people also raise with me concerns that matters affecting Dublin City Council tenants are not able to be adjudicated by the RTB. They have to go through Dublin City Council.”
“It is a disgrace that certain members of the board are attempting to push her aside simply for publicly agreeing with that position. Deputy Byrne is deeply involved in supporting her town. She should, and I know will, receive the full support of the League of Ireland community. I sincerely hope that people do not stay quiet. I stand with Deputy Byrne and I believe League of Ireland supporters do, too.”
“In many ways, if you target one of us, you target all of us. This whole topic is deeply emotive for Deputy Byrne, considering her grandfather's legacy. She has not gone to war with the club. Her grandfather was centrally involved for years, as was her whole family. She learned how to walk there. Her first steps were taken on Drogheda United's home pitch. She takes no pleasure in any of this. Anyone who knows her knows that her only focus is on Drogheda United winning the Louth derby on Friday night and bringing three points home to Drogheda. Deputy Byrne has no intention of resigning. She did not make any comments in the name of the club and she stands strong in that regard. It must be remembered that 93% of the FAI membership, including Drogheda United, last November backed a motion to boycott Israeli football.”
“I am a Shamrock Rovers supporter but, equally, I am a League of Ireland supporter. Deputy Joanna Byrne has been treated shockingly badly by the board of Drogheda United Football Club. She is the first female chairperson of the club. She is the first female chairperson of a League of Ireland club, Her soul and heart have gone into building the club. When Deputy Byrne bleeds, she bleeds claret and blue. She bleeds Drogheda. For simply standing up for human rights and calling for a boycott of Israeli football, she has been targeted by certain members of the board and particularly by American investors who are attempting to force her to resign. These American investors do not own Drogheda United. The community owns Drogheda United. The club will be there long after those American investors have gone.”
“Dogs and horses are treated abysmally and the resources for the rescues that are picking up the pieces of Government failure are not sufficient. They are at their wits' end now and the pressure on volunteers working in these rescues is incredible. I ask that the legislation be overhauled and that sulky racing be addressed as a matter of urgency.”
“I thank the Minister of State, and I know he is as horrified as anybody else when he sees the way horses are treated. Sulky racing is a hazard not just for the public, but clearly for the horses that are treated abysmally. It is horrendous, and that poor horse on the N4 is just one of many that were treated brutally. We hear many people talking about how they love their horses, but we do not see much evidence of that from many people who are their guardians. Clearly, legislation needs to be overhauled. We need to move on from the Dublin Carriage Act 1853. The Minister of State mentioned the money going to welfare services and rescues. If horses were to be seized and taken, there would not be any places for them. There needs to be an investment in all animal rescues.”
“The effort to draw up new legislation to deal with this area was suspended as a response to Covid and has never been resumed. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have a shameful legacy when it comes to animal welfare and the complete neglect of the welfare of horses is just one example of this. We urgently need an overhaul of our legislation on animal welfare and safety. I urge the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine and his colleagues in the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration and Department of Transport to finally take this issue off the back burner and begin working towards ending the systemic abuse of animals in Ireland.”
“It is absolutely disgraceful how horses are being treated by their owners and supposed guardians. The State has completely failed to stand up for their welfare. The Garda has constantly said it does not have the resources to address these issues and gardaí can only stand idly by as animal cruelty takes place on a massive scale. We desperately need Garda units in each division, dedicated to ending animal cruelty and abuse so that incidents such as what happened to Anne and her foal are taken seriously and investigated properly. We also need new legislation and better enforcement around sulky racing and horse carriages on public roads, banning them where it is dangerous. It is astounding to me that the current law governing the topic is the Dublin Carriage Act 1853.”
“Other urban horse owners know who the perpetrators of the treatment and death of Anne in Ballyfermot are, but have not made that known to the Garda. They talk about urban horses, but there is no action or evidence they are committed to them. Young children use small ponies like bicycles and playgrounds and show zero respect for them. People ride sulkies down the wrong side of the road during rush hour traffic, narrowly avoiding buses and cars and terrifying people around them. Horses are left tied to poles during the height of the summer with no water, and many have died from dehydration and neglect. There are illegal and unregulated stables across the city, with horses crowded into completely inadequate shelters in abandoned buildings or empty lots, exposed to the elements and often living in their own filth.”
“I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. I want to raise the persistent neglect of horses in urban areas, in particular in Dublin. Earlier this month, we saw the tragic death of Anne, a pregnant horse who collapsed on the N4 near Ballyfermot following an illegal sulky race on Dollymount Strand. Anne was brutally beaten by her owners after collapsing from exhaustion, and abandoned and left to die on the side of the road. The images were horrific. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. The abuse of horses is a regular occurrence on our streets. Owners say they love their horses, but when we see the conditions they are living in we have to wonder whether that is true. We hear urban horse owners say they love their horses, but there does not seem to be much evidence of that.”
“I ask that the Minister of State consider publishing the research and findings the Department has which allow him make a call that rent is not going to go up to €3,500 per year and €5,000 per year in Galway. I would appreciate it if the Minister of State could respond on that.”
“The tenant in situ scheme was going to allow persons to live in the home they had been renting up to then, and the council was obviously going to take it on, but that was effectively scrapped by the Government while people were midway through their applications. When the Government says it is concerned about the welfare of renters, it rings a bit hollow when we know that the same Government effectively got rid of the tenant in situ scheme. We hear talk about protecting tenants. Again, I go back to the fact that many tenants cannot afford to pay the rents. It is all very well having security of tenure and no-fault evictions, but if a person cannot afford the rent, it does not really matter what we have. It is like the difference between theory and practice.”
“I know one person renting in the private rental sector who received three different notices to quit during their time in private tenancy. That person has had to up sticks and leave their tenancy, their HAP property, on three separate occasions. The first and second occasions were very close together. That person dreads receiving a notice to quit. They are waiting to get on the social housing list, but that can take ten or 11 years. In area M in this area, there are more than 1,000 people on the waiting list for a one-bedroom property. That is the housing list for one very small area. The tenant in situ scheme was giving people some security but the Government has deconstructed it to almost nothing. Dublin City Council has very few tenant in situ applications. It is dealing with that.”
“In reference to the research carried out over two years, I ask that it be published so that people can see it and make their own minds up, rather than having to take the Government's word for it. I hear the Government talking about how it is committed to protecting tenants’ security in their tenancy. I have to question that because, when we look at the tenant in situ scheme, it was a scheme that gave people some bit of security. People renting in the private sector are waiting for the notice to quit. As I mentioned earlier, the average lease time is three or three and a half years, so people are waiting for the notice to quit. The tenant in situ scheme was giving people a little bit of security. It obviously was not going to work for everybody, but it was going to work for a lot of people.”
“I mentioned a point previously to which the Minister of State did not respond, which was an assessment of which rents will be going up. What assessments did the Government do? If it did assessments, why will it not publish them and explain how it came to these figures? When I said the rent in County Cork will go up by €3,500 per year, the Minister of State said it will not. Where is the assessment to show that is not true? How can the Minister of State tell me that is not true? Did the Government conduct research or assessments? It would be important for people to see how it came to the conclusion that rents will not rise. Is it fair to say that the Minister of State is saying that rents will not rise? Perhaps he would respond to that.”
“In regard to high rents in Cork, the Minister of State misunderstood my question. We are talking about new tenancies. The Minister of State is saying rents in existing tenancies will not go up. What he is doing there is deflecting from what we are talking about. The Bill states that new tenancies from 1 March will go to market reset. Is that the case? If so, what assessments were done by the Department? If assessments were done, why will the Department not publish them? If they were not done, how can the Department have figures for how much rents will go up? The Minister of State might come back to me on that.”
“The Minister of State is telling me that part of the solution to the housing crisis is to produce top-end apartments. In one of the blocks, there is a little home cinema which residents can book. There is a gym, which is absolutely fantastic, but that is not going to make these apartments affordable for ordinary people living in the inner city. The glass bottle site has a fantastic tradition. It is intertwined with the local community in Ringsend. Families worked there and were let go out of it. At one stage, the National Asset Management Agency, NAMA, offered the Government a discount on the sale price of the site, and the Government refused. It could have built 3,500 units of public, social and affordable housing with various types of cost-rental homes, but it did not take up that offer. That is a shame on the Government.”
“No social housing was allocated on that site. The developer made a financial contribution off site and homes are being built. While that is all very well, not all of them are being built in the community. The council had to buy homes down in Heuston Quarter, so only some of these homes are in and around the area. As regards the high-end, expensive apartments, it costs almost €1 million for a two-bedroom apartment in the Shore Club. My understanding is that not all of those have been sold. Who is able to afford them? If people do not live in them, they will rent them out at astronomical rents. While there may be more units coming on stream, they not for ordinary working families who are already squeezed and struggling with the cost of living. Is that what the Government is doing?”
“The Minister of State mentioned increasing supply in Dublin. The reality is that increase will be in high-end property. I was on the glass bottle site where 3,800 new homes are planned. The Minister of State is right that 350 of those will be social homes. In my view, and in the community's view, it is not enough but it is welcome. The number of people on the housing list in that area is through the roof. As I said, people cannot afford to rent or buy, so the only option is to live in overcrowded homes in Ringsend, Pearse Street or wherever it is and then look to rent. The reality is they cannot afford to do so. It costs €3,000 and €3,500, respectively, for a two-bedroom and three-bedroom apartment in the glass bottle site. In another building not far from there, the Shore Club, it cost €675,000 to buy a one-bedroom unit.”
“I mentioned that the increase in rents in Cork would be around €3,600 per year and the Minister of State said that is not true. What will the cost of an average market reset new tenancy in County Cork be from March? What assessment did the Department undertake and will it publish that research? Can the Minister of State give a commitment that the Government will not guillotine the debate on the Bill?”