Departmental Reports
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-24
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Richard Boyd Barrett (PBP), Dún Laoghaire

The Taoiseach mentioned that there is a focus in the strategy on housing and on the delivery of affordable housing. In my area, the average house price is now €680,000. The limit for the first home scheme for affordable housing is €500,000. In other words, if it is a new build, it cannot be more than €500,000. The Government's affordable housing schemes simply do not apply in Dún Laoghaire. Ordinary workers in Dún Laoghaire do not earn more because they earn in Dún Laoghaire. If you are a nurse, a teacher, a bank worker or a council worker, you do not earn more because you live in Dún Laoghaire. The Government's schemes are completely non-applicable. That is true in many parts of Dublin, by the way, where house prices are way in excess. What is the Taoiseach going to do? The local infrastructure housing activation fund, LIHAF, funding, which was given out in the millions to developers, was supposed to be conditional on giving back houses of €300,000 or less when it originally came out.
That was abandoned. In places like Cherrywood, where €15 million in LIHAF funding was given out on the condition that there was supposed to be some affordable housing, we got no affordable housing and the houses are coming in at €600,000 and €700,000. How are ordinary workers supposed to pay for houses at that price? What is the Taoiseach going to do to deliver them some affordable housing because his schemes do not apply in huge swathes of Dublin?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:03+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-24