Government failing on affordable housing – Eoin Ó Broin TD

Sinn Féin spokesperson on Housing, Eoin Ó Broin TD, has said that “the Government is failing on affordable housing”. The Dublin Mid-West TD was responding to an Aviva insurance survey, which reports that one in four renters believe they will never own their own home.

Teachta Ó Broin said:

“This week the Teachers’ Unions are holding their annual conferences. Housing is yet again one of the top items on the agenda as many principals report that they cannot fill permanent contracted teaching positions because young teachers cannot afford to rent or buy, particularly in or near the large urban areas.

“Today Aviva insurance has released a report surveying 1000 renters. One in four of those surveyed believe that they will never own their own home. The reason for this is very clear. The Government is failing on affordable housing.

“The Government’s failure is undermining our public services, our economic competitiveness and fording more and more people to emigrate or into an expensive and insecure private rental sector that does not and cannot meet their long-term housing needs.

“Their so-called affordable housing scheme is utterly broken. It is not meeting its targets. The targets are too low. And the prices of the homes, whether to rent or buy, are too expensive for the majority of workers.

“Meanwhile on the private side, Government is doing nothing to help SME builder-developers, while at the same time introducing policies that push up house prices.

“To make matters worse they are actively considering allowing landlords to increase rents above the Rent Pressure Zone caps while introducing more tax breaks for investors.

“Sinn Féin set out in great detail in our alternative housing plan, ‘A Home of Your Own’, how we would both increase and accelerate the delivery of genuinely affordable homes, while at the same time activate the SME builder-developer sector to build more good quality homes for working people to buy at more moderated prices.

“Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael cannot fix the affordable housing crisis because they are the parties that created it.

“Only Sinn Féin’s housing plan contained the radical reset of housing policy that is needed to end the crisis and give working people a chance to rent or buy a home at genuinely affordable prices.”