Tony Gregory (Dublin Central, Independent)

I support this motion from the Green Party because of the range of specific issues for which the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government has responsibility but has not inspired confidence. These issues are housing, the electoral process, the undermining of local government and animal welfare, the latter in which the Minister, in bad Fianna Fáil tradition, has no interest despite his responsibilities.

I wish to speak about housing issues. When the Minister, Deputy Cullen, enacted the Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2002, he destroyed what I regarded as the most socially progressive measure to have come through the House in many years — the social and affordable housing provision in the Planning and Development Act 2000. I thought at that time that Fianna Fáil was turning over a new leaf by standing up to its old paymasters in the construction industry. It seemed that something effective and significant would be done for thousands of young people who had been removed from the house purchase market by the criminal rise in the price of property which was becoming unaffordable for increasing numbers of people.

The builders refused to co-operate with the provisions of the 2000 Act, however, preferring instead to stockpile 80,000 sites. They lobbied the Government intensively. It seems that the builders found a more than sympathetic ear when they lobbied the Minister, Deputy Cullen, who agreed to abandon the social integration measure in the 2002 Act. It was the most reactionary and regressive move by a Minister for quite some time. The Minister did not demonstrate incompetence in pursuing such a measure, as the Act was competently engineered by him at the behest of the builder-developer lobby.

It amazes me that despite the continuing rise in house prices and the ongoing hoarding of development land by a handful of greed-obsessed billionaires, the Minister boasts in his amendment this evening of "the 9th successive year of record housing supply" and what he refers to as "a strong social and affordable housing programme". I do not know where such a programme is to be found, but it is certainly not to be found in Dublin, where the only records are the record number of people on the city council's housing waiting list, the record number of people on the homeless list and the record number of unfortunate people sleeping rough in doorways and on pavements. It is certain that "affordability" is a meaningless term, in the home-owning context, for record numbers of people.

I would like to speak about electoral procedures. I fail to appreciate the Minister's rationale in squandering up to €70 million on electronic voting, while the Government robs widows of their meagre entitlements. The Minister claims in his amendment that the new voting system will achieve "more accurate and more secure electoral procedures". It is arrogant cynicism to claim that there will be increased security when there will not be any back-up or paper trail. If the Minister wants more secure electoral procedures, he should start by introducing regulations that make the production of reliable identification a necessity for all voters before they cast a vote. Such a measure would not involve any cost, other than the cost of the loss of personated votes to certain parties that do that sort of thing.

The Minister has undermined local democracy by transferring powers from elected councillors to managers in his misnamed Protection of the Environment Act 2003 and by threatening with dissolution councils that do not do his bidding on the bin charges issue. He has reneged on the innovative proposal to have directly-elected mayors, a fact conveniently and hypocritically forgotten by his partners in Government at last weekend's Progressive Democrats party conference. It is a pity he did not remind that party's leaders that they voted against the introduction of directly-elected mayors. Local government will be further weakened and the centrally-controlled managers will be further strengthened by the removal of the dual mandate without the introduction of provisions for full-time councillors with real powers.

This country is a disgrace in respect of animal welfare. There is a culture of cruelty among a small minority, against whom no legislative action is taken. The appalling conditions in so-called "puppy farms" are exposed by the ISPCA every week. We are told that the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government is engaged in discussions with relevant interests, but it seems that this is a code for doing nothing. The Department is far too busy giving licences to millionaire property developers to amuse themselves by terrorising tame domesticated deer with packs of hounds in contravention of the Protection of Animals (Amendment) Act 1965. It issues licences to coursing clubs to traumatise the most timid of little animals. Such activities have been outlawed in most modern democracies, but the Minister, Deputy Cullen, has made no such moves.

See this speech in context