O’Brien ‘must deliver’ this week
Housing Minister and Paschal Donohoe are under pressure to come up with a quick f ix on ‘cuckoo’ funds
PRESSURE is growing on Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien and his Cabinet colleague Paschal Donohoe to deliver a ‘radical’ series of reforms to prevent so-called cuckoo funds from buying up housing.
The Housing and Finance ministers are working this weekend on a comprehensive response to the issue that has shaken the coalition in recent weeks.
The Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal that the measures being brought to Cabinet on Tuesday are expected to contain a density specification , where developments below a certain size cannot be sold to a single investor.
It is believed the scale will be roughly 40 units. Sources indicate it is hoped this will protect ‘traditional family homes’. The plans are also expected to ring fence up to 30% of future housing developments for first-time buyers.
This measure could be introduced through an amendment to legislation, possibly to the Affordable Housing Bill, which is expected to be passed by the Dáil before the summer break.
Mr O’Brien has in the past called for at least 30% of homes in new developments to be set aside for first time buyers.
Their plan to tackle the problem is expected to incorporate increases in stamp duty and a set-aside clause prohibiting ‘cuckoo’ funds from buying up estates wholesale.
Sources this weekend say both ministers are under intense pressure to prevent the issue from causing further damage to an increasingly shaky coalition.
One Cabinet source told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘There is palpable unease across the coalition at the public anger on housing generally.
‘The optics of the current furore are lethal. People accept apartments being rented. Family homes though are different. They are sacrosanct.’
Another minister said this weekend: ‘The Government is in big trouble on housing.
‘Never mind as a minister, as a working politician who has to knock on doors at some point, I say that. I won’t have anything to defend in the field of housing, even in four years’ time.
‘We’re genuinely worried... If a member of the public asks me “what are the three things or four things or five things or six things that the Government is going to do to help a young, professional couple buy a house?” I can’t tell them. We have no ideas.’
The minister added: ‘There are no solutions in Government, we are paralysed. It’s appalling.’
Another minister who spoke to the MoS this weekend said ministers Donohoe and O’Brien will ‘have to do a lot better ‘than the initial response they gave to Cabinet this week.
The minister added: ‘Darragh [O’Brien] did not impress. It was all bluff and no substance. Next Tuesday is his D-Day. He has to deliver.’
Another minister warned: ‘We are in a very dangerous political space. The Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael party meetings have been dominated by this for a fortnight. Leaders’ Questions have been dominated by it for a fortnight.’
One minister said: ‘It’s delivery day for Darragh and even if he does deliver it will not satisfy public fury. People are fearful for the futures of their sons and daughters.
‘O’Brien is skating on very thin ice. The coronavirus cocoon is gone. We are very much back in “business as usual” country and housing and homes are the issue. It’s a very big test especially for Darragh. They will have to come up with something good.’
Ministers O’Brien and Donohoe face a difficult tightrope act in protecting home buyers while not pushing investment funds out of the market altogether.
One minister warned: ‘They have to ensure they don’t chase the “cuckoo” funds out. There is a lack of funding to build houses. They have to balance appeasing public fury with not driving these funds out. It’s a complicated situation which is not a good space for Darragh.’
One minister noted: ‘The funds are receptive to reform. Even with a stamp duty increase they have a good thing going and they know it. There are no excuses for inaction.’ Confidence in Mr O’Brien was further undermined after it emerged he wrote to opposition leaders asking them to supply him with ideas for another new policy on housing.
The political SOS, seen by the MoS, is contained in private correspondence to opposition and independent group leaders.
In the letter, Mr O’Brien states: ‘I am writing to you in regard to the development of a new housing policy statement and action plan.
‘I am writing to all housing spokespersons and technical groupings to seek their considered opinions.’
The minister asked the groups to ‘outline specific proposed solutions, including costings, that should be included’ on the plan.
He added he was ‘eager to engage with specific proposed solutions to help achieve the objectives
‘Government is in big trouble on housing’
laid out in the Programme for Government’.
The minister’s letter did not go down well with some senior members of his own party.
One Fianna Fáil party figure asked: ‘What is he at? We won’t get cheers for a new policy from the public, they will run us out of town.’
Another party TD said: ‘He is barely a year there and already there is a real sense of drift.’
Mr O’Brien’s appeal also received a largely unsympathetic response from those it was designed to appeal to.
Sinn Féin housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin said he would ‘absolutely’ participate in any housing policy initiatives, but he added: ‘I am not optimistic. Darragh has a great habit of saying something is coming soon and then arrives a year late.’
Meanwhile, Labour’s spokesperson on housing, Rebecca Moynihan, was puzzled at the minister’s objectives.
She told the MoS: ‘We are not sure what the minister wants – perhaps because the minister himself appears to be unsure what he wants. It has a bit of a “seat-of-his-pants” feel about it.’