Sinn Féin spokesperson on Housing Eoin Ó Broin TD has commented on the publication of the Heads of the Affordable Housing Bill 2021, stating that it ‘must get detailed pre-legislative scrutiny at the Oireachtas Housing Committee’.

He also described the shared equity loan proposals as ‘deeply worrying’.

Teachta Ó Broin said:

“Minister Darragh O’Brien finally published the government’s affordable housing scheme last night.

“This is an important and controversial piece of legislation and must be subject to detailed pre-legislative scrutiny by the Oireachtas Housing Committee.

“The decision to plough ahead with the shared equity proposals as a mechanism to deliver affordable homes is concerning.

“We know from Britain that these schemes benefit developers the most, increase the cost of new homes and place a greater debt burden on homeowners.

“The scheme will do nothing to reduce the actual purchase cost of a new home.

“In terms of the other ‘affordability measures’ referenced in the affordable housing scheme, the definition of cost rental is worrying as it is based on a discount of market rent rather than recovering the economic cost of the property.

“Sinn Féin strongly support affordable cost rental and Council led affordable purchase schemes so long as they are designed to deliver genuinely affordable homes to rent and buy for working people.

“I hope the Minister does things the right way this time with this General Scheme and refers it to the Housing Committee so we can conduct detailed scrutiny of the proposals.

“The Minister must not try and circumvent the housing committee on this occasion as he did with the Land Development Agency Bill and the Residential Tenancies Bill.”