Pringle: Government must dramatically increase delivery of affordable homes for purchase

By Thomas Pringle
Updated: 31st May 2023

ndependent TD for Donegal, Thomas Pringle, illustrated how recent CSO-reported earnings impact on Donegal people’s ability to buy a home, as he supported a call on Government to dramatically increase the delivery of affordable homes for purchase.

Addressing the Dáil today, Deputy Pringle said: “Housing is a critical issue and the failure of ideologically founded Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael housing policy has produced a crisis of unprecedented proportions. The recently published census results show that the proportion of owner-occupied dwellings continues to fall, down from almost 70 per cent in 2011 to 66 per cent in 2022, and we know this trend will only continue as the prospect of young people owning their own home dwindles.

“CSO figures released this month show that earnings in my own constituency of Donegal remain the lowest in the country. Looking at earnings by county, median weekly earnings for Dublin were 9.9 per cent higher than the median weekly earnings for the State, and a huge 36.7 per cent higher than Donegal, which at €517, had the lowest median weekly earnings.

“Taking this into account, we need to consider how this impacts on those looking to buy a home. Mortgage providers look at peoples’ wages to determine the amount that they may borrow, and the median Donegal weekly wage translates into €26,889 per annum. I rounded this up to €27,000, although I doubt banks would be so generous, and then put it into a few mortgage calculators. A single person on this wage, with no dependants and no monthly outgoings at all, which we know is impossible, may be eligible for a mortgage of €89,000.

“Taking that figure, I looked to see how many homes were for sale in the entire county of Donegal. 108 were available for under €150,000 and only 35 were available for under €100,000, which would still be way beyond the reach of the average person, according to those figures,” he said.

The deputy said: “Following this, a quick search of Airbnb showed me that over 1,700 Airbnbs are available in the county. This is beyond shocking. I’ve had numerous couples tell me that they have had to separate and move back in with their parents because of lack of accommodation in the area in the county, while at the same time we are tripping over Airbnbs.

“This isn’t unique to Donegal. This is a national problem and people are struggling to make ends meet. Add to that the uphill battle of trying to save for mortgages, and it creates a sense of national hopelessness,” he said.

The deputy was speaking in support of the Social Democrats motion re Home ownership, which also calls on Government to ensure public money is not invested in the delivery of private rental-only developments that the deputy said are unaffordable to rent and unavailable to buy.

Deputy Pringle cited pre-legislative commentary from the Construction Industry Federation and Property Industry Ireland, who noted that planning restrictions and objections are creating a barrier to ownership, adding, “They’re hardly who we should rely on for statistics, but the Government seems to think that they know everything.”

Deputy Pringle said: “That is not to call for a lack of planning and careful strategy, but this can exist in proportion to allowing for home ownership as well. But what we also need within our towns and villages is for land to be opened up.” The way for that to be done is for the State taking a role to encourage people to move into towns and villages, he said.

The deputy urged Government to “either support this motion or allow Ireland to fall in line with other lifelong rental countries and their policies and provide mass scale social homes for low and middle earners.”

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