Sinn Féin Leader Mary Lou McDonald TD has criticised Taoiseach Micheál Martin for digging in on what she described as “a lame-duck housing scheme that will only line the pocket of developers and will do nothing to make housing affordable for ordinary people”.

Speaking at Leaders Questions today, Ms McDonald called on the Taoiseach to ditch his government’s Shared Equity Scheme which she said will drive-up house prices and saddle working people with unsustainable debt.

The Sinn Féin Leader said;

“In the middle of a housing crisis only Fianna Fáil could introduce a scheme that inflates house prices and puts money straight into the pockets of developers, while bullishly ignoring warnings from senior government officials, the Central Bank and the ESRI.  

“I told the Taoiseach that his house price inflating ‘Shared Equity Scheme’, written and designed by property developers, must be scrapped. Instead of listening to the experts and to common sense, Micheál Martin seems intent on digging-in on a scheme that does nothing to make houses affordable for ordinary people.

“When you are trying to make houses affordable you should not allow developers to call the tune. Their job is to maximise profits for themselves.

“To fix the housing crisis you not only have to build houses. You have to build houses that people can actually afford to buy.

“With Fianna Fáil in charge of housing, property developers are back in control and ordinary people are literally paying the price for it.   

“The result of pushing ahead with this scheme will be that home ownership increasingly out of reach of a whole generation of young people because this government is prioritising the interests of developers. 

“It is time for a real affordable housing plan. Sinn Féin’s Eoin O’Broin has that plan. It means investing the tens of thousands of truly affordable homes that are so badly needed.”