Sinn Féin the only party to make a submission on housing

``The Dublin housing crisis is a volcano just waiting to explode'', said Councillor Nicky Kehoe. He and other members of the Sinn Féin group on the council attempted to raise the debate at last Monday's Dublin City Council meeting beyond the mere detail of how much of the 20% of new housing developments will be allocated to social housing or the provision of affordable housing.

Part V of the Planning and Development Act 2000 requires all councils to draw up housing plans to March 2005. The Act also requires that councils specify a percentage, (not exceeding 20%) of all land zoned in the development plan for residential or mixed use to be reserved for social or affordable housing.

On Monday, the councillors went for a 50:50 mix between social and affordable, and then passed the whole housing strategy on the nod. Despite some two hours' discussion, hardly one of the councillors dealt with the substantive issue of an adequate housing provision for Dublin City or just why the Corporation intends to keep Dublin's housing list the same length in 2004 as it is now.

The leader of the Sinn Féin group, Christy Burke, pointed out that the plan fails entirely to even deal with the huge housing list of people who are now in desperate need of accommodation. ``Irrespective of how councillors decide the proportion between affordable and social housing, this Plan actually proposes to keep the housing list at its present length and to have people sleeping rough on the streets of this city until at least the year 2009. This strategy represents a complete dereliction of our responsibilities to the homeless.''

Demand for social housing in January of this year was 7,420. This is the number of people on Dublin's housing list. Demand in March 2005 will be 7,450, according to the Plan. Sinn Féin had made a submission on the plan during the public consultation period. It was the only party to do so, or, as Councillor Dessie Ellis said, to show any concern whatsoever about the housing crisis.

The Sinn Féin submission set out the baseline requirement for any housing strategy as, the government's commitment, through the Good Friday Agreement, to the equality duty and the human right of all to adequate housing. Sinn Féin proposed realistic targets to eradicate the housing waiting list and homelessness and to secure immediately alternative provision for those who sleep rough on the streets. This has to end.

It also proposed measures to deal immediately with the scandalous situation in the private rented sector, and in the housing market where people cannot afford to buy a house in the City. Sinn Féin proposed measures to provide accommodation for the Travelling community and to take into account their right to a nomadic lifestyle. It put forward measures to meet the accommodation needs of that large section of the community who suffer some disability, but remain institutionalised because of inadequate housing provision.

Christy Burke talked of the scandal in the private rented sector, where, as a result of a loophole in the law, landlords are continuing to cream off, tax free, exorbitant rents, without any control, inspection, quality control or restriction on rent increases. The cut-off point for social welfare rent support has imposed terrible burdens on families who are simply unable to afford the exorbitant rent increases which landlords feel entitled to demand, on pain of eviction.''

Nicky Kehoe accused the Corporation of ``working hand in hand with the developers to maintain housing demand and house prices, beyond the reach of the mass of the people in Dublin. We need radical solutions now. If the developers won't build, then the Corporation has to intervene,'' he said.