Sinn Féin spokesperson on Housing, Eoin Ó Broin, has said that Fianna Fáil are running scared of Sinn Féin’s comprehensive, detailed and costed housing plan.

The Dublin Mid-West general election candidate’s comments were made in response to a flurry of Fianna Fáil social media videos, including by Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien, which ‘grossly misrepresent the details of Sinn Féin’s affordable homes plan.’

Eoin Ó Broin said:

“Yesterday and today, Fianna Fáil have released a flurry of social media videos attacking Sinn Féin’s housing plan. The latest video shows Darragh O’Brien in front of a building site claiming that under Sinn Féin’s plan the purchaser wouldn’t own their own home.

“Of course, this is completely false. Darragh O’Brien knows this is simply not true. He and his party colleagues are grossly misrepresenting the details of Sinn Féin’s affordable homes plan.

“As we set out in great detail in A Home Of Your Own, these homes will be for sale at prices from €250,000 and will target people on gross incomes ranging from €50,000 and €90,000, with the income eligibility reviewed annually.

“The purchaser will legally own the home and be able to do what they want with it subject to normal planning rules. They will also be able to pass it on to their children and grandchildren with no hidden equity charges and no inheritance tax.

“When they want to sell the home, they can do so through the affordable purchase scheme. Given that they bought the home for an affordable price in turn they will sell it on at a fair affordable price, which is the price they paid for its index linked for wage inflation and home improvements.

“Darragh O’Brien’s claim that the state would have to guarantee all of these mortgages and would purchase all properties where there was a default is complete and utter nonsense. There is no such guarantee under our scheme.

“Sinn Féin has engaged constructively with the Banking and Payments Federation in advance of the publication of our plan. We are confident that the banks will provide mortgages for purchasers of these homes as in government we will provide the very same security on such mortgages as is provided under existing government schemes.

“The reality is that under Fianna Fáil house prices have spiralled out of control while less than a thousand affordable purchase homes have been delivered in the last five years. So far this year less homes have been built than in the same period last year.

“Contrary to their claim to be the party of home ownership, the number of young people who own their own home has collapsed over the last thirty years under Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. In 1991 68% of people aged 25 to 35 owned their own home. In 2022 that number has fallen to just 31%.

“This is why Fianna Fáil can not be trusted on housing. Young people can not afford another five years of Fianna Fáil in charge of housing.

“Fianna Fáil are so embarrassed by their own failure they are desperate to talk about anything else. Clearly, they are running scared of Sinn Féin’s comprehensive, detailed and costed housing plan.

“Only a Sinn Féin government will deliver the tens of thousands of affordable homes that working people need and deserve. If people want to change housing, then they need to change the government. The only way they can do that is by voting for Sinn Féin on November 29th.”