Fine Gael IS the party for landlords
»»Private property owners to be paid almost €1billion »»Local authorities fall short of home building targets
EOGHAN Murphy and Regina Doherty are set to give private landlords close to €1billion for social housing services this year, it has emerged.
And what is most shocking is the staggering amount of cash will be handed over without any new properties being built for the huge outlay.
It comes as the latest breakdown of social housing construction for 2018 shows some local authorities are failing to come anywhere near targets and often only building a handful of properties all year.
The figures on what is being paid out to different schemes by Mr Murphy’s Department of Housing and the Department of Social Protection, run by Ms Doherty – were obtained by Eoin O Broin.
The Sinn Fein housing spokesman collected the information through a series of Parliamentary Questions and it showed almost €700million was spent last year.
Mr O Broin is predicting the largesse to private landlords – for providing services that are supposed to be the responsibility of the State – is heading towards a billion this year and is likely to top €900million.
He said: “In 2018 Government spent a staggering €695,364,000 in rent subsidies to private landlords and property owners.
“This colossal sum was paid to house 98,345 households across four schemes administered by two government departments.
TENANCIES
“The Department of Social Protection spent €175,024,000 on private landlords for 24,303 tenancies on the Rent Supplement Scheme.
“The Department of Housing spent €100,400,000 housing 11,684 households in long-term leased properties on the Social Housing Current Expenditure
Programme [SCHEP].
“It spent a further €143,340,000 to house 18,915 households in four-year Rental Accommodation Scheme [RAS] leases.
“The largest area of expenditure was through the Housing Assistance Payment Scheme [HAP] which cost €276,600,000 to house 43,443 households in short term two-year leases.
“And 2019 will see a significant increase in the overall cost of private rental subsidies as the budget for HAP has been increased to €422,729,000.
“While Rent Supplement costs should fall this will be offset by expected rises in RAS and SCHEP expenditure.
“This will bring the total cost of rent subsidies close to €900,000,000 by the end of this year.
“To put his into perspective the total budget allocation to Local Authorities to build and buy new council homes in 2018 was €561,670,000 – almost 20% less than paid out to private landlords.
“What the latest figures highlight is Fine Gael’s overreliance on the private rental sector to meet long-term housing need while at the same time
underinvesting in real social housing.” Meanwhile, the failure of councils to step up was highlighted with the release of the local authority social housing building statistics yesterday.
Some examples include Galway
City Council where there were only 14 social housing units built by the end of the year when they had set a target of 96 in January. Tipperary, one of the top three county councils in the country by area, only built 20 and Clare only managed two.
A spokesman for Mr Murphy said progress was being made.
He added: “As part of a commitment to drive greater transparency and accountability for the delivery of social housing across the country, Eoghan Murphy has
published social housing delivery figures for the high-level programmes of build, acquisition, leasing, HAP and RAS for all 31 local authorities.
“Overall, the target for social housing delivery in 2018, under Rebuilding Ireland, was exceeded by 6% and the housing needs of over 27,103 households were met.
“Minister Murphy again reaffirmed the department’s commitment to supporting local authorities and approved bodies deliver muchneeded homes across the country.”
The latest figures highlight Fine Gael’s over-reliance on the private rental sector
EOIN O BROIN SINN FEIN HOUSING SPOKESMAN YESTERDAY