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The government should not hand over public land to private developers to build houses that are completely unaffordable for workers, said Sinn Féin al Dáil leader.
Dublin City Council voted against the transfer of public land on Oscar Traynor Road in Dublin to a private developer to build 853 homes yesterday.
Mary Lou McDonald called for the delivery of public housing on public land and described the Oscar Traynor Road proposal as a “bad deal” that would have seen “an enormously valuable site given away to a private developer for free.”
“The total cost of these homes would have been from 325,000 euros for a one-bedroom to 380,000 euros for a three-bedroom,” he told Dáil.
“That is out of the question and certainly not affordable for the vast majority of workers.
“Under this agreement, the city council will have also been paying the odds for the social housing and worst of all the developer would have pocketed the full market value of the land. Land that developer got for free and huge profits for them. “
“This crazy business represents the worst of Fine Gael’s housing policy,” he added.
But Ms McDonald said it didn’t have to be this way and asked the Taoiseach to help Dublin City Council raise funds to ensure the site is developed “efficiently” in a way that results in “really affordable housing for women. people who desperately need it. ” .
Micheál Martin said the country needed to put aside ideological arguments about housing and, at some point, just “start building houses in some way.”
Martin said the country would not deliver 20,000 houses this year due to Covid-19 and that that number was far less than the 33,000 that the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) recommended be built each year to keep up with growth. of the population. .
The Fianna Fáil leader said that the government was trying to build 25,000 homes but would not reach that figure next year.
As far as Oscar Traynor Road is concerned, he said a “comprehensive” process had been carried out in recent years to determine the best way to develop the site that had been vacant since the 1970s.
He added that Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien was meeting with Dublin City Council on the matter but did not think it was “straightforward” because the councilors’ decision was “significant”.
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