Dublin must follow Limerick’s lead on EIB loans for housing

Cllr. Éilis Ryan (Workers’ Party) said:

“It’s long overdue that local authorities begin to borrow directly from Europe, to invest in infrastructure and housing, and it means local councillors can no longer claim their hands are tied by national government. We as councillors in Dublin should now agree to follow Limerick’s lead, borrow money from the EIB, and use it to build our own public housing on the land we own.”

Cllr. Ryan continued:

“In Dublin, we have enough public land to build around 12,000 units of housing. The plan currently is for huge swathes of that land to be given over for private housing – which developers will make a profit off. To date, those who support this strategy have justified it by saying that national government is refusing to finance public housing.

“But the Workers’ Party has consistently maintained that the council have failed to explore alternative funding options which would allow us as councillors to set the policy for how we develop our land.”

Cllr. Ryan said:

“Given Dublin City Council’s bigger size, a far greater loan from the EIB would not be an unreasonable expectation – somewhere in the region of €350 million.

“In terms of financial viability, I have proposed to the city council on a number of occasions a fully-costed model for mixed-income public housing which would finance itself over a number of decades – meaning it would be viewed as a viable option by the EIB. Unfortunately only a small minority of councillors have supported this in the past.”

Cllr. Ryan concluded:

“At the beginning of December, the city council will again vote on a Workers’ Party motion to prohibit private developers building for profit housing on public land. In light of the EIB loan to Limerick City Council, it simply no longer stands up to scrutiny for councillors to refuse to commit to building public housing on public land.”