The Government’s affordable housing scheme will inflate prices and put money back in the pockets of property developers, Sinn Féin has claimed.
The plan by Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien has previously been criticised by the Central Bank and the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
But the Minister has defended the scheme, which would involve the Government taking a 30 per cent stake of equity in property purchases.
Speaking during Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil on Wednesday, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said the strategy contains “strong echoes of the failed Celtic Tiger policies” of previous Fianna Fáil governments.
She said: “The lives of an entire generation have been defined by a housing crisis. It’s a crisis that was created, and worsened, by bad Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael policy.
“And for so many people now, the aspiration of purchasing or owning their own home has been reduced to a distant pipe dream.”
Fianna Fáil's housing scheme is written by property developers for property developers and will drive up house prices.
It’s time to scrap this lame duck scheme and get behind @EOBroin's plan to deliver affordable homes for workers and families – @MaryLouMcDonald #Dáil pic.twitter.com/tCYcwc8bdK— Sinn Féin (@sinnfeinireland) February 24, 2021
She said people are angry and disappointed because Mr O’Brien’s shared equity scheme “does absolutely nothing to make housing more affordable”.
She added: “In fact, it will achieve quite the opposite.
“His scheme will prop up already unaffordable prices, and will make a bad situation so much worse.
“His policy could be described as both the continuation of disastrous Fine Gael housing policy, but also one that has strong echoes of the failed Celtic Tiger policies of your own party Fianna Fáil.
“It will have the effect of maintaining unaffordable prices, and saddling working people with more unsustainable debt.”
Ms McDonald noted her party is not alone in its criticism of the plan.
She said: “The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, the Economic and Social Research Institute, and indeed the Central Bank, have all warned you and told you that your scheme will drive prices up.
“Now, even the Fine Gael group of councillors on Dublin City Council have begun to see sense and have come out against this scheme.
“But it seems so far, that just as in the bad old days when you were last in government Taoiseach, your minister seems intent on ploughing on regardless.”
Responding, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said: “Our only interest is in giving young people the chance to buy houses.
“At the moment, if you take last year for example, the number of houses built was not sufficient to deal with the housing crisis.
“So this kind of branding, and this kind of reference to developers and all that, is just political propaganda.
“Because at the moment we do not have a degree of activity, either in the private sector that we should have, or indeed in the public sector.”
He accused Sinn Féin of consistently voting against home ownership.
“You voted against our affordability motions, you voted against the help-to-buy scheme,” he said.
“You’re against the equity scheme before it’s even set up.
“It’s nowhere near as dangerous as you’re trying to indicate that it is.
“On Dublin City Council, Sinn Féin have voted against housing development motions 16 out of 21 times.
“It’s time on those issues you’ve got off the fence and start allowing housing schemes to start, and not allowing ideology and politics to get in the way of getting houses built.”
