MacManus critical of Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael ‘cosy coalition’

Sinn Féin Councillor Chris MacManus has accused Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil of “turning their backs on 1,154 households in County Sligo in need of social housing.”

Councillor MacManus said: “Despite the hyped-up Fianna Fáil rhetoric that Budget 2019 would be a Housing Budget, the figures indicate that only a paltry additional €120m has been allocated for more housing in 2019 above what’s been previously promised.

“That’s just 490 additional new social homes across the whole state, yet here in County Sligo there are 1,154 households on the Housing waiting list. That doesn’t include the many hundreds of others in the County on Housing Assistance Payments. The government real social housing targets falls well short of what is needed.

“We need a target of at least 10,000 new social homes very year. Which Sinn Féin has pro- vided for in our Alternative Budget.

“Meanwhile, the government continues to over rely on the private rental sector. In County Sligo over a thousand households are dependent on HAP & RAS. So far in 2018, over €4.1M in public money has been paid to landlords for these rental properties across the county. It is not an effective use of public funds and only further serves to increase private rents in an already overheated private rental sector.

“As for the €89m announced for affordable housing, €75m of this is carry over from 2018. This means just €14m in additional funding is being allocated for affordable housing in 2019. Despite all the boasting from Fianna Fáil last week, all they will have delivered in their budget negotiations is a paltry 350 affordable homes above what was already committed by Government. Not of much benefit to the many young families I know who are struggling to save to buy their own home whilst locked into paying highly inflated rent.

“The needs of these struggling renters was further ignored when the Government granted an unnecessary tax relief to landlords while doing nothing to reduce rents or halt rent increases.

“This Budget is just a continuation of the failed housing policy of Rebuilding Ireland and the government’s over reliance on the private rented sector in particular to deliver insecure social homes.

“They could have sided with the many hundreds of families here in County Sligo unable to access secure or affordable housing. Instead they turned their backs on those in need making it clear that the cosy coalition of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are unwilling or unable to tackle the housing crisis.”