Cork TD describes plans to cap price of affordable homes in Cork City at €400,000 as "a sick joke"

Wednesday, 5 May 2021 09:27

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire was speaking after the government announced plans for a new Affordable Housing Bill.

The government say a couple with a joint income of €90,000 would be able to afford a €450,000 house on the scheme, however critics say the scheme is outside the reach of many and will only push the price of homes up.

Speaking to RedFM News, TD Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire says his party want to see changes to the new bill:

"Their shared equity scheme has been criticised by the Central Bank, it doesn't work elsewhere. And you know, like we have to be real here like, even as a maximum- talking about 400,000, even 300,000 is out of the reach of so so many people, 400,000 is just unrealistic. To call that affordable is a bit of a sick joke, to be entirely honest with you. There are elements that we want to look at, the cost rental, which has long been a Sinn Féin policy. There's not enough emphasis on it in the government's plan. So we're going to try and amend the government's bill to try and ensure that it does deliver affordable housing, but as it stands currently, it's not good enough."