Affordable Housing Bill 2021: Report and Final Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2021-06-18
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Pat Casey (FF), Labour Panel

I fully support this measure to deliver home ownership. It is one of a number of such measures. We should put it in that context, that it is a short-term measure to provide an option for people to buy their own home. It is limited to €75 million, which is less than 1% of an €11 billion mortgage market. The words "could lead" and "can lead" have been used, which are not definitive. To say that something which equates to less than 1% of the market will have a significant impact on inflation of house prices is a stretch of the imagination.
Some €75 million could provide 2,000 families with the opportunity to own their own home this year through this legislation. Let us not forget that we are trying to provide avenues to home ownership. It is not the only thing in this Bill. We also have the local authority affordable housing section, Part V housing, and cost rental. It is not the sole method of delivering home ownership. Sinn Féin keeps referring to the developer-led old Fianna Fáil. Who in Sinn Féin builds houses? Are they magicked out of somewhere where we do not need carpenters, chippies or bricklayers? Who builds houses? It is people. I do not know about the reference to this being developer-led. Perhaps the wizard of Hogwarts will magic the houses out of nowhere because I do not know how Sinn Féin will build houses. We are here to try to provide affordable homes for families. This is the first significant affordable housing legislation that has been brought to this House, with four avenues to deliver home ownership. Since Sinn Féin focuses on one and says that it rejects that, I cannot wait to see how it will build houses without builders.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2021-06-18/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:49:24+00:00
Sitting date: 2021-06-18