I disagree wholeheartedly with this amendment. A person who has been allocated a social house does not care whether it is built by a local authority, a private developer, the LDA or an approved housing body. Saying that we must build houses, affordable houses in the case of this amendment, in a certain way is an ideological position. Some local authorities will be able to ramp up the provision of affordable housing more quickly than others. As Senator Casey said on Committee Stage, other local authorities may not h…

I have great respect for Senator Boyhan but I am surprised at his contribution. I am not suggesting he was attempting to mislead the House in his contribution but the figure of €450,000 relates to the ceilings for the shared equity scheme. What we are actually discussing here, in this section, is the local authority affordable purchase scheme. Thus, any references to or utterances about that figure have no bearing on the section we are actually discussing. He might consider that in his reply. The amendment, as writ…

I will make one brief point which I mentioned on Committee Stage. What we are doing here is aligning the existing cost rental equity loan term, in terms of the finance and arrangement for the same, which is at 40 years. By moving from 30 years to 40 years, we have aligned the whole process. If we were moving to 50 years in terms of what has been proposed in this amendment, it would be out of kilter with what we have, in terms of the cost rental equity loan. However, it absolutely is the Government's intention, in t…

I compliment Senator Higgins with regard to the original proposal on Committee Stage. The acceptance of the wording in this respect is further evidence that the Government takes very seriously the rents that will be charged at the outset under the cost rental model. It is our target to reduce the rents to the maximum possible, which is why we have spread the term over 40 years. That is why we are being specific under this amendment about what we are determining as maintenance. As the Minister outlined, however, ame…

This comes back to some of the arguments we made earlier regarding arbitrary figures and points. Cost rental is defined as the cost of building, financing and the necessary and appropriate management costs. This is defined. It is what it is and it does not change regardless of whether a person's income is X or Y. This is the definition of cost rental. If we were to include the provisions suggested here, we would be looking at something different from cost rental. I am not saying there is anything wrong with looking…

I will be interested to hear what the Minister of State says. The points Senator Higgins has made are valid. The protection of the core price, the initial part, is not necessarily in the amendment being proposed, which is a flaw. Perhaps we can take account of what has been said in this Chamber, and that when this Bill is debated in the Dáil we ensure we protect the original core set-price rent, because that is the cost of building, maintaining and financing. Those costs are set and we cannot go below that for fear…

I have listened to Senator Warfield and Sinn Féin talk about the shared equity scheme, prior to the Bill even being published. They had written off this scheme and said it would do X, Y and Z, before the Bill was even published. We keep hearing the references to the London School of Economics. What one will not hear Senator Warfield referring to is the UK's audit office, the equivalent of our Comptroller and Auditor General, which stated it increased supply in London by 14% with only 1% inflation. One will not hear…

Will the Senator clarify the question he is asking, for my information?

I asked the Senator to clarify his question for the information of the House. I am not clear on what the Senator is asking.

To which amendment does the Senator's question refer?

He is referring to the entire section.

When the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, was in the House on Monday he responded to a separate but connected amendment and he gave some very good examples of how the 30%, 35% or 40% would not be the case in reality. That is on the record for anybody to read so I will not repeat his points. Reference has been made to the Government saying that houses costing €350,000 and €450,000 are affordable. The Government never once said that. Perhaps Senator Gavan has not read the Bill or he misunderstands what we are d…

As a member of the committee in question, I know the Minister has never been afraid of engaging with the committee. We have had discussions on this particular issue. I know the Minister has also engaged with the County and City Management Association, CCMA, along with his officials. The Minister of State spoke in his last contribution on the 30% flexibility for local authorities, which will give them the flexibility to have their own scheme of priority to suit people as they see fit within their own areas. I believ…

I totally appreciate where Senator Moynihan is coming from with this amendment. It is very important that we look not only at couples who have children but also to individuals and single people. However, I think that is achieved by the house types the local authority will commit to building. If the local authority commits to building a one-bedroom apartment, as referred to by Senator Moynihan, it will not be for a couple with a child but will be specifically for the household types to which the Senators referred. I…

Senator Moynihan sat through the pre-legislative scrutiny of the Oireachtas joint committee and my understanding is exactly as she outlined to the House. Perhaps the term "affordable dwelling contribution" is confusing, but it is clear when read within the totality of the Bill that what is being referred to here is the equity stake that the State takes in the house. The Minister of State outlined it very well in response to amendment No. 47, which seeks to prevent the affordable dwelling contribution being more tha…

I do not think the legislation says that. The phrase "which shall not be unreasonably withheld" is used. That is a clear instruction to the council that it should not withhold consent unreasonably. As the Minister of State indicated, there is provision in this legislation to allow for a top-up loan for the extension of a property. We should encourage people in extending their homes to facilitate the needs of their families. The legislation certainly does not prevent that. As with any home, one does not own it until…

I can see what the amendment is trying to achieve. In the interest of aligning policy we should consider amendment No. 58, in particular, which references a 40-year period. My reason for saying so concerns the cost-rental equity loan, which is in place for approved housing bodies to provide cost-rental homes. Eight sites have been identified to provide 430 cost-rental units this year. They are over a 40-year period so there is probably a mismatch between the legislation concerning 30-year and 40-year periods. I wis…

While I agree with what Senator Higgins has said, if we did not have a housing crisis and we had 20 years to ramp up scale, such as was the case in Austria after the Second World War, we could take the points made there and implement them to the letter of the law. However, approved housing bodies are on the State's balance sheet. We also have to be cognisant of the fact they do not have the ability to ramp up the scale to the ambition every Member of this House has for cost rental. I heard my colleague, Senator O'R…

I mean no disrespect to my colleagues but I believe there has been a fundamental misunderstanding of what cost rental is. Cost rental is defined by the cost of building, financing and maintaining a property now over 40 years as per the legislation. Not a single approved housing body, trust or co-operative, the things that we have added in, would commit to building properties over a 40-year period if they were not certain that the cost of building, maintaining, servicing and financing was going to be returned. In fa…

I will start from where Senator Pauline O'Reilly left off and expand on the point. The State will intervene in this cost rental system and provide homes over a 40-year period. I do not think any of us will still be in this House in 40 years' time but there will be capacity to do much more at that point. Senator Moynihan suggested linking units that have paid off their building, management and financing costs over that 40-year period and are in the ownership of approved housing bodies, and thereby in the ownership o…