Conor Sheehan
Limerick City · Labour Party · Ireland
“If a student does not have access to one of these devices or access to one at home, there is often no alternative and that could leave them excluded. Many families are forced to pay hundreds and thousands, particularly with the rising cost of microchips, for these devices.”
“I thank the Minister for her considered response. We need to get rid of voluntary contributions and move to generic school uniforms. This is something that has been done in the UK.”
“This digital divide is resulting in a severe and growing level of inequality where so many communities, students and families are unable to purchase the devices they desperately need for their children's education.”
“I raise the issue of the community access support team, CAST, in Limerick, which has prevented 133 detentions under section 12 of the Mental Health Act and reduced the number emergency department presentations. It has responded to over 1,000 incidents.”
“Do not worry. We need to have a debate this week before the House rises about the imminent report on Aughinish Alumina. There are up to 2,000 direct and indirect jobs at stake in Limerick. We cannot have a situation where the State is inadvertently complicit in the export of alumina to Russia. Where there is a will, there is a way.”
“It is absolutely reprehensible that planning permission has been granted for apartments on the site of the former mother and baby home at Bessborough. We have 19 mothers and 859 infants associated with Bessborough still missing. Now 140 apartments are going to be built on a mass grave. We need statements on this next week.”
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“I thank the Minister for the response. I will touch on some of the points she made. Schools are very concerned that they are not sufficiently funded to open new special classes. There are issues with space, staffing, resources and appropriate sensory spaces, among other things. The majority of our traditional schools do not have the appropriate facilities for spaces that they need, like sensory spaces, to enable children with additional needs to thrive in a mainstream environment. I am slightly concerned about the common application system being seen as a panacea. It has been in place for secondary schools in Limerick for more than 20 years, and we consistently have an issue every year with schoolchildren not getting places.”
“They have, for example, very young children and do not know whether the medical advice they are getting about the treatment their child needs is right for them. That, in 2025, we do not have clinical confidence in an organisation concerning a form of surgery so people can get the treatment their children need is shocking and disgraceful but not surprising given what different advocacy groups have raised, especially about CHI over many years.”
“It is really vital we restore clinical confidence here because we have a situation where Tusla now has to mediate between families and doctors because families are terrified of their children having surgery in case the surgery is unnecessary or is the wrong surgery. We need to be very clear as well that this is systemic rather than a one-off issue. The fear, given the figures quoted in the audit report that looked at a sample of 147 cases over two years, is that they will have to be looked at again and that many more will have to be looked at. There is a fear this problem is more widespread than the media reports we have heard. Like many Deputies across the House, I have people coming to me who are literally terrified.”
“The systematic failures of governance and management at CHI have been repeatedly highlighted by the Scoliosis Advocacy Network and the Spina Bifida Advocacy Network. I did a lot of work with them when I was a councillor and they feel like they are constantly knocking and knocking and nobody is giving them any answers or accountability. It is very clear we need a public inquiry. We can tease out exactly what that will look like but perhaps Scally could serve as a model. There are so many questions we do not have answers to. There are huge issues of concern about this hospital and especially around uninformed consent. Many parents have told me the last thing they want is to have to bring children who are very unwell here to the Dáil to protest.”
“I was not in the Chamber for Deputy Brennan's moving contribution but I did listen to it from my office. It made me stop what I was doing. I was born with a congenital dislocated hip. I have a weakness in one of my hips. I went through some stuff as a child and may have to have more treatment on my hip. Orthopaedic surgery is an especially physical form of surgery, an especially invasive form of surgery and the thought of vulnerable children having surgery they were not supposed to get and that some of them may have had car parts, essentially, inserted into parts of their body does not even bear thinking about. I am glad to hear the Minister commit again to the publication of the report. We really need to come back and look at this again because there are some concerns – the families have concerns – about the audit.”
“I will make very clear my own position. I do not support the FSRU. The Labour Party believes we cannot justify this if we intend to be very serious about reaching our climate targets and achieve a 51% reduction in emissions by 2030. In light of the 2021 policy statement, which introduced a moratorium on LNG and fracked gas, and the Government's independent analysis which raised a range of risks associated with such a development, we are very concerned because the Shannon LNG terminal will be a permanent commercial enterprise that will lock us into fossil fuel dependance for decades to come. We could be eligible for up to €26 billion in fines if we increase our fossil fuel use. The Irish taxpayer will have to pay for this for decades to come.”
“I know he referenced coal but greenhouse gas emissions from LNG are 33% more potent than coal. Building an LNG terminal would lock us into fossil fuel reliance for decades. We declared a climate emergency in 2019. I remember having an exchange with a former Green Party TD before the election who assured me the Government's new planning and development Bill, which was then before the previous Oireachtas, would not allow the approval or construction of LNG infrastructure. It is clear that what the Labour Party was pointing out before the election about the planning and development Bill is true.”
“I thank the Minister. I am disappointed to hear his reply. Given that the FSRU would, in theory, provide sufficient gas reserves, how can we have faith in the Government's commitment to end fossil fuel use and to reach our targets? Is it a case that the FSRU will not provide sufficient energy security and the Minister feels we need the Shannon LNG too?”
“I am covering for Deputy Ahern. I thank the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach and welcome the Minister to his new role. This is my first time having an exchange with him in the House. We know the Cabinet has approved the proposal to develop a State-led emergency gas reserve in the form of a floating storage regasification unit, FSRU. This will have the capacity to supply Ireland's entire gas demand for seven days. We do not believe the Shannon LNG terminal is necessary or prudent. I ask the Minister if he will intervene to stop the construction of this terminal and make a statement on the matter.”
“Not in my constituency, but in the neighbouring constituency of Limerick County, there are significant issues in towns like Newcastlewest. Such towns are essentially being held back by totally inadequate water infrastructure, including in the main area of the Minister's brief, namely, housing. Investment in Irish Water must be aligned on a multi-annual basis with the Government's new housing targets.”
“We need something like that in this country because there are huge swathes of the country where the waters are unswimmable from time to time, for example, when we have had heavy rainfall. We seem to have an almost blasé semi-tolerance of it. We must also look at new ways of treating water. I would love the Government to make progress with the installation of anaerobic digestion tanks at water treatment plants around the country. I would also like the Government to come forward with planning exemptions for critical infrastructure such as for water treatment, because we have a significant issue with excessive infiltration of the Shannon when the river is high that affects drinking water and bathing water in Limerick.”
“It was such a fantastic amenity. We can look across the water to the UK, if Members will pardon the pun, at the swimming infrastructure there, despite the challenges that they also have with their water infrastructure. Raw sewage has been running from the Shannon into the Corbally Baths for the past 40 or 50 years. The baths had to close. We have had repeated water testing by the local authority but nothing has ever changed. We must get serious about this because we have facilities like that all over the country that could serve as municipal swimming areas. A great campaign was led over the last two years by Feargal Sharkey to highlight the poor quality of the bathing waters all over the UK.”
“Water and the adequate funding of water infrastructure is something we have failed to address. We all know that there are huge issues with water infrastructure. Uisce Éireann needs at least €60 billion over 25 years to repair our water system. This is something we have failed to adequately address. It is crucial, not only for our economic development but also for the basic amenity of being able to swim in open water. I always find it a bit strange that we almost have a tolerance for raw sewage running into our bathing infrastructure. I often swim, for example, at Kilkee Beach in County Clare. It is a fantastic beach, but we often cannot swim there because of raw sewage running into the sea. In my own city of Limerick, and very near to where I am from, we have the Corbally Baths, which was originally a public outdoor swimming pool.”
“I raise the issue of University Maternity Hospital Limerick and the long-awaited need to colocate the maternity hospital with the main acute hospital in the region. University Maternity Hospital Limerick delivers excellent care with good outcomes for mothers and babies. However, there is no ICU or blood bank on-site and the building has not changed significantly since I entered the world myself nearly 32 years ago. Much of the focus at UHL is rightly on the acute bed shortages and staff shortages in the UL Hospital Group but it is vital that this colocation, which the Minister for Health said in a parliamentary question reply to me is the next maternity colocation to be considered, goes ahead, because there are no ownership or land issues with this.”
“That site is key to solving the housing crisis in Limerick because so much land there is being transferred to the Land Development Agency. We need to see that land serviced and activated because of rents and house prices in Limerick. Rents there increased by 19.7% last year. The housing crisis is trending worse in Limerick than in the rest of the country because we are not building enough housing, be it social and affordable or private housing.”
“Belfast, which is approximately 140 km away and uses similar supply chains, is the second cheapest city. We need to examine how people are able to deliver apartments in Northern Ireland, which is on this island and only two hours up the road, at a much lower cost. Until we address the issue of apartment viability, we will not be able to be able to meaningfully address the housing crisis. I know the Minister was in Limerick last Friday. I urge the Government to scale up the ambition of the Land Development Agency, particularly in terms of the Colbert Quarter, which is a brownfield site. We know there are difficulties in activating brownfield sites but this one has the capacity to deliver 2,800 homes. That site has category three long term development viability, which means nothing will happen with it in the short and medium terms.”
“They are a blunt instrument and are frequently flouted because rents go up by more than the rate at which they are supposed to under the legislation. I urge the Government not to introduce a halfway house, whereby rents can just recalibrate between tenancies. While RPZs have been very ham-fisted, they are the only bit of protection renters have in the private rented market at the moment. My concern is that if we go by a model whereby rent can recalibrate between tenancies, it will increase the termination of tenancies in order to increase rental income. We will end in a worse situation than we are in at present. I raised the issue of the fall-off in apartment construction with the Minister in the Dáil two weeks ago. Dublin is the second most expensive city after Zurich.”
“This is something the Labour Party supports. It was in our manifesto. We propose to do this through the development of a housing solidarity bond operated via a State savings bond with an attractive interest rate to redirect private investment from vulture funds towards housing developments. I urge the Government to take action on short-term lets before 2026. Under the previous Government, a Bill to introduce controls over the sector, including the establishment of a register, was proposed, but was delayed and revised and never made it to the floor of the Dáil. It now needs approval from this Government to proceed with full drafting. I ask for this to be hurried. On rent controls, we know that rent pressure zones have been a failure by any objective measure.”
“The Housing Commission report is very clear in its recommendation that 20% of our housing stock should be social and cost rental. Currently, approximately 9% of our housing stock is social and cost rental. I ask the Government to take on this recommendation. I also urge the Minister to introduce a new social housing Act as a matter of urgency. I raised this as a parliamentary question and received a reply indicating that the Department was assessing the report of the Housing Commission. That was published almost 12 months ago. There is a clear need to specify and protect the social housing sector and remove any threat of privatisation. I support the need to create a State housing infrastructure investment fund to unlock the €160 billion in Irish household savings to invest in social and affordable housing.”
“Many of the problems we face at present could have been avoided had this report been implemented. The report's recommendation that local authorities be given the power to compulsorily purchase land at its existing use value plus a 25% gratuity is very clear. This would immediately end the ability of land hoarders and speculators to make enormous profits at the expense of first-time buyers. I also agree on the need for a massive investment programme for social and affordable housing on public land. The Government is putting record investment into housing but never before has a Government invested so much and, by any objective, got such a poor return. The borrowing capacity of local authorities throughout the country is only €118 million.”
“It is designed to ensure that emergency accommodation meets the best interests of children, looking at issues such as access to schools, the need for child support workers, homework, play areas, appointments, etc. Some local authorities are quite good in this regard but others are not. We need consistency across the board. This Bill has already passed Committee Stage. I sincerely ask the Government to work with us on a cross-party basis to get it passed. Another important provision in this motion that I clearly support is the need to enact the recommendations of the Kenny report in respect of law. The Kenny report has been lying on a shelf for 52 years now. The Labour Party introduced legislation in 2021 to enact its recommendations. We know land is at the centre of the housing crisis.”
“I have begun the steps of restoring this Bill to the Order Paper, which was supported by Fianna Fáil when it was in opposition. Under the current legislation governing local authorities, children have no official rights. The existing legislation is 35 years old. It reflects a different world, one where homelessness was something that only affected single, adult men. The Bill is a simple measure that would mean local authorities would have to assess the needs of children in homeless families as part of their decision-making. It would require local authorities to assess the suitability of alternative accommodation when a homeless family declines an offer of emergency accommodation because it is not suitable.”
“Last Friday, we heard the figure of 15,378 people who were now homeless. This includes 500 people in my city of Limerick, among them 224 children. My local authority has more than 107 tenant in situ cases on hold. It tells me that, given the changes to the scheme, it will be lucky to be able to do 20 to 25 this year. I wrote to the Minister last Friday setting out a number of practical measures that could and should be implemented in order to try to meaningfully address this. The first measure, which I implore the Government to take on board, is to pass the homeless families Bill that Jan O'Sullivan introduced in 2017. There was talk last year that this Bill was going to be included in the Government's miscellaneous housing Bill. It never made the Bill, but it is an important and practical measure.”
“Ar dtús, ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil leis an ngrúpa neamhspleách agus an Teachta Healy as ucht an rún seo a chur faoi bhráid na Dála inniu. Molaim agus molann Páirtí an Lucht Oibre an rún seo. Tá a fhios ag chuile dhuine sa Teach seo go bhfuil an chruachás agus an ghéarchéim ag éirí níos measa, agus caithfidh an Rialtas rud éigin difriúil a dhéanamh. I support the general thrust of the motion. I thank the Independent and Parties Technical Group for bringing it forward. In my short time as a TD, this is the fourth time that a motion in this vein has been tabled. I would love if this time we could see some genuine engagement from the Government other than the standard countermotion that states everything is going okay and we should just continue in the way we have been.”
“They think, for example, that a student might be late or not doing homework, etc., whereas a student is often a carer who may be up half the night and may have duties in the home that supersede what they do at school. We also badly need a single point of contact in every school who young carers can approach if they are struggling, late or have to deal with the embarrassment of constantly having to explain themselves. I would like the Government to engage with the substance of the motion, particularly the two issues I raised in regard to education. We also need to see a plan for when and how the income disregard will be phased out over the lifetime of the Government.”
“This is often little understood and often invisible to professionals and policymakers. My local university, University of Limerick, launched an important initiative to raise awareness of UL students who are family carers. This could and should be replicated in second level and primary schools across the country. It has developed the expertise and a model. We just need the political will to push this forward. There are more than 15,000 student carers in higher education. It is something that negatively affects the educational attainment of our young people. It is causing people to drop out of third level or reconsider going to third level. There is also a need for specific training for teachers, who need to be equipped to identify young carers. This could and should be done through the in-service programme. Often, teachers do not know.”
“I welcome our visitors to the Public Gallery. I thank the Minister of State for his comprehensive response. It would be remiss of me to speak about young carers without acknowledging our 2024 Limerick Person of the Year, Ellen Gannon from Newcastle West who cares for her two brothers, nine-year-old twins Andrew and James, both of whom are autistic. Today we heard very powerful testimony from four young carers, Conor, Lucy, Benjamin and Sarah Ann. I commend them on coming in to speak to us. Young carers exist in the shadows, with their work often going unnoticed outside the home. They are at greater risk of mental and emotional difficulties, more likely to be bullied and more prone to experiencing food poverty. Caring is also a risk factor for children and young people's mental health and well-being.”
“We still have not had a proper rationale as to why the Minister has decided to curtail this scheme. Now that single people are excluded from it, and we know single people are not moving on the housing list at the speed we would like due to the shortage of available units, can the Minister outline what new measures the Government will be bringing forward to stop them from entering homelessness and emergency accommodation? This is a major issue.”
“We know that section 23 did not work during the boom, but we clearly need to do something because apartment approvals dropped by nearly 40% last year.”
“I did not hear anything specific in the Minister's reply in regard to what the Government is actually going to do to get us out of this quagmire we are in. I want to follow that up by asking about apartment delivery. We have a specific issue with apartments. It was revealed this morning in The Irish Times that the croí cónaithe city scheme had only delivered 17% of its target. It has delivered nothing in Limerick, the city I represent. Rents in Limerick rose by 19% last year and Limerick had the largest increase nationwide in terms of house prices. How does the Minister propose to make apartment construction, particularly outside of Dublin, viable again? What new measures does the Government intend to introduce?”
“Regarding targets, there has been a great deal in the news in the past of couple of months, including yesterday, to show that the Government will not reach its stated targets for the next three years. We have 250,000 too few homes for the population and the Housing Commission report is very clear. How does the Minister intend to make sure we reach the housing targets as set out in the programme for Government? I urge him to revisit the targets before 2027. What sort of engagement has he had with the Department of public expenditure? I am hearing that the AIB windfall money that was promised has not actually come down the line yet.”
“Will the Minister confirm whether he intends to review the housing completion target for 2025, how many new homes does his Department estimate will be completed in 2025, what additional measures does he plan to take to increase housing construction, and what engagement has he had with the Departments of Finance and public expenditure on new taxation and expenditure measures to boost delivery?”
“Instead, it is being completely filleted. It is unworkable. Local authorities will be lucky this year if they are able to do a fraction of the small number of tenant in situ purchases they completed last year. For the Minister to claim he is protecting vulnerable people in the private rented market is fundamentally dishonest.”
“There is no advantage for landlords to sell to the local authorities. If we are honest, people will get much more if they put a home on the private market. It is almost as if the Government thinks landlords are trying to sell to the State in order to cash in; that is simply untrue. The changes have turned this scheme from a safety net to stop people going into homelessness to a scheme of last resort. Government policy has now changed in that it actively wants and favours vacant possession and sale on the open market. This is a distinct policy shift away from preventing homelessness. It is absolutely shameful, at a time when homelessness has never been so high, private rents have never been so high and people have never been in such a precarious situation, to do this now. This scheme should have been extended and expanded.”
“She was going through the tenant in situ process for almost the entirety of last year. However, the application was closed out on 18 December because there was no allocation for 2025. We now know the allocation that is coming for 2025 will not even cover the necessary refurbishment work that needs to be done in the home Ciara has lived in for over a decade. This home is now going on the open market. She and her partner have been on the housing list for a decade now. She told me they are now coming up to the last three months they will spend in a home that their seven-year-old son only knows as his home. They have begged the council to buy it. They are desperate and willing to try anything. I do not know what to tell Ciara and others like her who I am dealing with at the moment. I do not know what answers or what hope they have.”
“It would be easier for all of us if the Government were honest with people instead of trying to spin this by stating it will still protect the most vulnerable. That is simply untrue. It is very clear that the Department of public expenditure does not like this scheme - it is expensive - and the Department of housing has been told to take a scissors to it. It would be better for all of us if the Government were honest about that. In the time available to me, I will tell the House about one of the many people I am dealing with who do not know what they are going to do or where they are going to go after their notice to quit expires. I am dealing with a woman called Ciara who has given me permission to tell her story. In January 2024, she was initially told that her landlord wanted to sell the home she was living in.”
“This type of provision is extremely expensive for the State and can have detrimental impacts on the physical, social and emotional well-being of family members. During his tenure, the Minister's predecessor, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, said targets were considered the minimum attainment for each local authority so that if opportunities arose to prevent homelessness through the scheme, local authorities and approved housing bodies could do so. Now, the Minister has effectively blown a massive, gaping hole in that. We urge the Minister to reconsider these restrictions on tenant in situ, which we believe will have unintended adverse consequences for vulnerable households throughout the country, increasing homelessness at a time when the system is creaking at the seams. Rather than imposing restrictions, this scheme should be extended.”
“They say it has been a safety net for people who have been issued with a no-fault eviction notice by their landlord and has successfully prevented homelessness, keeping families in their homes and adding social housing stock to local authorities and approved housing bodies. NOVAS in my city of Limerick has been very active in procuring properties in collaboration with local authorities through this scheme and is very anxious to continue to prevent homelessness in this manner. It is concerned the newly proposed restrictions will severely limit the impact of the scheme, forcing more households into homelessness for protracted periods with few exit pathways. We know now that more families than ever are living in commercial hotels and hubs for far longer than the recommended six-month period.”
“I cannot understand why the Government is making it even harder for landlords to do what is right for the common good by making this scheme even harder to access. Instead of discouraging the tenant in situ scheme, we should be encouraging it by offering landlords some form of tax relief to sell their properties to the council with tenants in situ. Since these changes were announced, I have been inundated with contact from several concerned approved housing bodies and housing initiatives. They tell me the tenant in situ scheme has proved very effective in preventing homelessness among hundreds of households since its introduction.”
“Neither do I understand why the sins of the landlord are being put on the heads of tenants by making landlords who are not registered with the Residential Tendencies Board, RTB, ineligible for this scheme. The position of tenants in the private rental sector is one of the most precarious in the context of housing in this country. Many of them are terrified of their landlords and of getting a notice to quit, and the idea they could make their landlord register with the RTB is farcical. In fact, there is nothing to be gained by any landlord from selling their property to the local authority as opposed to putting it on the private market, given the shortage of housing and how much house prices have risen in recent years.”
“It is now the third week in March. We are effectively one quarter of the way through the year and local authorities still do not have a unit allocation for the tenant in situ scheme. It has been in purgatory since the general election, with my local authority having more than 100 applications hanging at the end of last year. It has told me that under this revised scheme, it will be lucky if it is able to complete 20 this year. On the changes to the scheme, I do not for the life of me understand why the Minister is excluding single people. What have they done to deserve this? Single people are the biggest group on the social housing list who are not really moving. There is a chronic shortage of one-bedroom units and this will make the situation even worse.”
“This has been confirmed in a circular issued to local authorities, which states that the purchase price and associated fees, such as valuation, legal, etc., will only be recouped to local authorities and approved housing bodies, AHBs, and must be within acquisition cost guidelines. This means that no refurbishment costs can be claimed on the scheme and that only legal and valuation fees can. This excludes large swathes of people in the private rental market who live in poor quality housing due to no fault of their own. AHBs and homelessness organisations have written to the Minister on this and said clearly that access to funding for refurbishments was a barrier, in fact, to the success of this scheme, which was reasonably successful and was one of the few wins the previous Government had when it lifted the no-fault eviction ban.”
“Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCathaoirleach Gníomhach. Ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas, ar dtús báire, a ghabháil le Páirtí Shinn Féin as an rún seo a thabhairt faoi bhráid na Dála. Molaim agus molann Páirtí an Lucht Oibre an rún seo. The Government's announcement on the tenant in situ scheme leaves more questions than answers. This is a vital scheme to stop even more people ending up in homelessness. The cynical move to put a de facto end to this scheme, by restricting it so much as to make it effectively unworkable, is an absolute disgrace and is not fooling anybody. The fact is that people who are facing no-fault evictions are simply not high on the priority list of this Government.”
“I welcome the call from the commission for social housing Act to prevent the creeping privatisation of social housing. I really urge the Minister to act on this. The commission report confirms what we have been saying in the Labour Party for some time, namely that the targets related to social and cost-rental housing, which the Government has yet to exceed, are far too low and need to be revised upwards. We need at least 67,000 social homes and to grow the sector to 20% of all housing stock. We also need to see new targets before 2027. Housing is the biggest civil rights issue of an entire generation. It is younger people, in particular, who are paying the price. I hope the Minister will engage constructively with the Opposition, as I will with him, to implement some of the recommendations.”
“This is why the Labour Party believes we need a rent freeze for at least three years until supply improves. Once supply improves and the market stabilises, reference rents could and should be considered. We also need to see a properly resourced RTB with real teeth. It is very clear from the report that one of the reasons for the failure of RPZs is the toothlessness of the RTB. Since Housing for All was launched in 2021, house prices have gone up by 40% and the Government has repeatedly missed its targets for social and affordable housing delivery. If we consider the great interest in the Bolands Mills quarter development at Grand Canal Dock, we note it encapsulates this really well. There have been more than 2,300 applications for 46 apartments, and those have been made a week and a half before the closing date.”
“The claim bandied around about landlords fleeing the market does not add up, and CSO data back that up. What we need is a step change and a fundamental change in the balance of power, away from landlords towards renters. We have some of the weakest renters’ rights in Europe. Our rental market is not the norm; it is an anomaly. While rent pressure zones are not perfect, they have served as a stabiliser and have slowed rent increases. They have been a sticking plaster but the idea that they can be removed, which would expose a gaping wound, is completely misguided. I have an open mind on the proposal of the commission to introduce a system of reference rents but this is contingent on a functioning rental market with adequate supply, which we do not have.”
“The best and most overarching way to deal with the crisis is to dramatically increase supply. The most effective way to do that is through capital investment in cost rental and social housing, not through demand-side measures such as the help-to-buy scheme and the first home scheme. Instead, the response of the Government, which I am really concerned about, is to seek to expand these schemes to second-hand homes to stimulate more demand in an already overheating market. I want to turn to the rental sector and the need for reform. The private rental market does not work, neither for renters nor landlords. There has have been a smorgasbord of policy changes. They say investors need certainty but there have been no less than a dozen sets of policy changes relating to the regulation of the rental market.”
“The current system is unsustainable, with large levels of current expenditure being directed towards demand-side measures rather than on capital expenditure, to fund additional social and cost-rental housing delivery. I am pleased that the commission report refers to phasing out the help-to-buy scheme, because that is an inflationary measure that is driving up the price of housing. I have heard a reference before, including from the Minister, to the point made in the commission's report about empowering local authorities. The Minister claims that he has consolidated the four-stage approval process into a single stage, which we all know is completely gumming up the system, yet that is really only true if we exclude Part V, turnkey and design and build. This again goes back to the targets.”
“This is something that disproportionately affects both younger people and renters. In the past decade, we have had the largest increase in young people living at home in Europe. My concern is also referenced in the report, which states: "the current lower rate of home ownership by younger cohorts will present significant affordability challenges when entering retirement." What will happen to the thousands of people my age who are stuck in the private rental market when they invariably retire, or even the minority of those availing of cost rental, or as I call it "market discount" rents. What measures will be put in place so they can live securely into old age?”
“My concern about the Government is that there is a habit of Ministers, and in particular the Taoiseach, floating half-baked policy changes in the media to see which way the political winds are blowing. They then respond rather hysterically when they are legitimately called out on this by the Opposition. We must activate vacant planning permissions, many of which relate to apartments, particularly in cities, including those outside Dublin. The Croí Cónaithe scheme is not working. The State must find a better way of bridging the viability gap, because as it stands the scheme favours those with deep pockets, which prevents young people in particular from getting on the property ladder. I now turn to the section on affordability in the Housing Commission report.”