Republican News · Thursday 12 December 2002

Fianna Fail back in bed with the builders

What has been the biggest failure of the 26-County state's political leaders?

Yes, there are many to focus in on but one surely must be that in every decade since independence the state has failed to house all of its citizens adequately or justly. We believe that the right to accommodation, to housing, should be a constitutional one.

There has been a chronic housing crisis in the last ten years, not just in terms of house prices, but more crucial issues, such as homelessness, rent increases, evictions and a nearly doubling of local authority waiting lists.

The government knew there was a crisis. They commissioned three expert reports and have patently ignored most of their findings. For example, one recommendation was the withdrawal of mortgage relief for owners of second homes who are investing in the housing market.

Fianna Fáil and the PDs lifted it for one year. House price rises slowed hugely for the first time in seven years. Last year, Charlie McCreevy gave investors back their tax break and prices rises have once again hit double digits, easily double the rate of inflation.

Then there was the Planning and Development Act 2000, which promised that 20% of any new land zoned for housing had to be kept for social housing. Two years later, less than 300 units have been built and the property sections of papers are filled with ads from developers selling new houses with the promise there will be no social housing.

This week, new legislation is being rushed through Leinster House to amend this clearly failing act. Amend is not perhaps not the right word. Try gut.

The 20% rule is to be deleted and developers can offer local authorities either other sites or money for not having to have social housing on their developments. The already leafy suburbs and estates of the wealthy are to be ring fenced, with local authority and social housing being pushed back to the ghetto.

It was clear when Minister Cullen admitted two weeks ago that there were only 300 units built so far under Part 5 of the Planning Act 2000 that no serious efforts had been made by the coalition to ensure that this vital element of the act was implemented.

Last week, the minister admitted in a written reply to a parliamentary question that local authority house building will fall by 1,000 units in 2001 because of the Budget cutbacks.

We need real social housing provisions now more than ever. This new bill is another backward step.

Fianna Fáil are back in bed with the builders and it is the ordinary people, the average wage earners, who will lose again.