Wealthy developers ‘gain most’ in land swap

WEALTHY property developers stand to gain the most from a new Government scheme to provide affordable housing, the Opposition warned last night.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern unveiled the initiative at the conference of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) in Belfast.

The move follows criticism that only 800 housing units out of 10,000 promised in the Sustaining Progress social partnership agreement of 2003 have so far been built.

Under the scheme, the Government will give valuable State-owned sites to developers who, in exchange, will provide low-cost houses elsewhere.

Crucially, however, the proceeds of the house sales will go to the developers, the Department of the Environment confirmed.

“That sounds like a great deal for the developer, but an extremely poor deal for the taxpayer,” said Green Party TD Paul Gogarty.

Labour environment spokesman Eamon Gilmore TD said he, too, suspected that “the main beneficiaries will be the property developers.”

Fine Gael finance spokesman Richard Bruton TD said the Comptroller and Auditor General should be asked to recommend a framework for the scheme to ensure value for money for the taxpayer.

“We have seen too many short-term political decisions taken by this Government that ended up costing the taxpayer dearly.”

But the department insisted the scheme would be “open and transparent”, and would achieve value for money.

A new agency, the Affordable Homes Partnership, will oversee the scheme, which will be concentrated initially on the greater Dublin area, before being expanded nationwide if successful.

Former SIPTU president Des Geraghty will chair the agency, the board of which will also include the managers of the four Dublin local authorities and a number of independent members.

The first land-exchange deal has already been agreed, under which Durkan Homes will take possession of a State-owned site at Harcourt Terrace in Dublin valued at €13m.

In return, Durkan will build 193 homes in the next nine months, with 140 of them being available by the end of the year.

In accordance with the Affordable Housing Scheme, the properties will be offered at below-market prices to first-time buyers on low incomes.

The department said the market value of the 193 houses would be circa €46.5m, but they would be sold for about €30.8m.

Thus, the amount the developers would lose would roughly equate to the value of the State property they were gaining.

More importantly, Environment Minister Dick Roche said, the scheme would ensure the rapid provision of affordable houses. Six other sites have already been selected as candidates for similar land swaps, while a national audit will be undertaken to identify others.