O’Keeffe furious after FF housing motion
Defeated
THE Fianna Fáil TD for Cork East, Kevin O’Keeffe, has launched a stinging broadside at Fine Gael and Sinn Féin for “scuppering” his party’s €10 billion affordable housing scheme.
Earlier this month, Fianna Fáil unveiled details of the plan, which the party said would provide 50,000 homes over a five-year term for people, pointing out that many people were now shelling out more than a third of their income on rent or mortgage payments.
Under the Fianna Fáil proposal, some €2 billion per year, drawn from an “investment vehicle” that would raise funds off the Exchequer balance sheet, would be channelled towards building houses on State and local authority owned lands.
Deputy O’Keeffe reacted furiously after a Fianna Fáil Private Members Business motion in relation to the scheme was defeated in the Dáil, prompting him to slam Fine Gael and Sinn Féin, saying it was “a disgrace” they voted against it.
“The last affordable housing scheme was shut down by the Fine Gael/Labour Government in 2011, now this latest proposal has been scuppered by a new Fine Gael/Sinn Féin alliance,” said Deputy O’Keeffe.
He went on to say the current Government had “categorically failed” to deliver a single affordable home since then.
“In fact, houses prices have soared by 90 per cent over the past seven years,” said Deputy O’Keeffe.
He said that with house prices rising beyond all reasonable affordability, the onus was on the Government to make “immediate moves” to follow through on its commitment to speed up the delivery of affordable homes.
Deputy O’Keeffe said an affordable housing scheme should be used to kick-start housing in areas where “supply is weakest and prices are highest”. He said such a scheme must involve an initial capital investment by the State and the investment of proceeds from sales into the construction of more new homes.
“Working families are priced out of the market and face house price over six times the average household income. I am deeply concerned that will only continue to be the case for more and more people unless we see a substantive change to policy and the introduction of a scheme for affordable homes in Cork,” said Deputy O’Keeffe.
“Fine Gael and Sinn Féin public representatives should be ashamed of what their TD’s did in the Dáil this week. They are playing party politics with the lives of young people and families in Cork,” he concluded.