Sinn Féin accused of 'hysteria politics' in opposing Shared Equity housing scheme

Under the plan, €75m will be allocated to allow the Government to offer equity loans of up to 30% on new-build homes under €400,000. The scheme will have no salary cap and will be aimed at allowing younger people to purchase their first homes. File photo

The Housing Minister has accused Sinn Féin of "cynical hysteria politics" in opposing his Shared Equity Home Loan scheme.

During a Sinn Féin Private Members Motion on scrapping the scheme, Darragh O'Brien said the opposition was "interested in manufacturing problems and not solutions".

Mr O'Brien said that the country is in a housing crisis and needs to "use all tools at our disposal" as well as needing new approaches.

He said the scheme has not yet been finalised but "lives rent-free" in Sinn Féin Housing spokesperson Eoin O Broin's head. He said that Sinn Féin is "consistently opposed" to private home ownership.

His colleague Paul McAuliffe said the plan will introduce cost rental homes for the first time.

Under the plan, €75m will be allocated to allow the Government to offer equity loans of up to 30% on new-build homes under €400,000. The scheme will have no salary cap and will be aimed at allowing younger people to purchase their first homes.

Sinn Féin TDs roundly criticised the scheme, with Mr O Broin saying it will raise house prices.

He said:

It will increase house prices, saddle working people with debt and line the pockets of big developers with taxpayers' money. 

"Facing a barrage of criticism from all quarters, this scheme is on its last legs. Last year, in email correspondence between the Minister's Department and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, released to me under freedom of information, Department of Public Expenditure and Reform officials said 'it will push up house prices'.

"The former secretary-general of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Robert Watt, said 'the property industry wants an equity scheme because it will push up house prices'."

Mr O Broin said it is known from media reports that the Central Bank is extremely concerned about the impact of the scheme on house prices, bank lending and consumers "although we will not know the final verdict of that body until later this year". 

"Two weeks ago, the ESRI told the Oireachtas housing committee 'this scheme will very likely lead to house price increases' and the mainstream of the property industry, the Institute of Professional Valuers and Auctioneers, who are the people who buy and sell homes in every county of the State, have said that in their view this will push up house prices."

FF/FG's reckless developer scheme must be scrapped.

Working people need homes they can afford. That's what Sinn Féin will deliver. #EndTheHousingCrisis @EOBroin pic.twitter.com/BeHTwRjPOh

— Sinn Féin (@sinnfeinireland) March 3, 2021

Labour spokesperson Duncan Smith said the debate had become "personalised" between Mr O'Brien and Mr O Broin. He said that many people in his constituency of Dublin Fingal had been locked out of homeownership.

"In such young constituencies there are lots of young people who have been renting for a long period of time. Some may have cobbled together a deposit although the majority have not. They need something to hope for and they are genuinely concerned about this scheme."

Social Democrats spokesperson Cian O'Callaghan raised doubts that the scheme will increase supply.

"All the experts, from the Central Bank to the ESRI and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, have said the opposite. All the independent commentators...across the political spectrum and in different publications, say this will increase demand. Where is the evidence that it will increase supply?"

Fine Gael TD Emer Higgins said that access to affordable homes was "the number one issue" for her generation and the Government had four measures to tackle this. She said the scheme would "stimulate supply" as a "short-term measure". 

Her colleague junior minister Peter Burke said that the scheme would help "unlock 80,000 planning permissions" and give people a "small chance to get on the property ladder".