Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the debate, the contributions to which from all sides have been extremely positive. Some of the contributions are in stark contrast to the fiasco which took place here over the last couple of days. The Dáil should have been concentrating in that time on bread and butter issues for the people who sent us here. There is no greater bread and butter issue than the need for the State to provide shelter and accommodation for vulnerable people in difficult circumstances. My experience is no different from the experience set out by previous speakers. I acknowledge the work my county colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, is doing in this area. It is another legacy issue that has been handed on and is being dealt with proactively. As the previous speaker said, there is no silver bullet, magic wand or easy solution.

This morning, I looked at my own constituency. In County Limerick currently, 1,543 people are on the housing list with a further 2,274 on the list for the city, which is a total of 3,817 for the new local authority. These are not just numbers. They represent people and their families, many of whom have been on the lists for a considerable period of time. I know from my time as a county councillor that some people on the housing lists spend huge amounts of time on them. There has been the safety valve of the rental market but matters were really brought home to me over Christmas. I met people from my own area who work in Dublin in good jobs yet find that they are being priced out of the property market. They find that the aspiration to buy an apartment or house in Dublin is out. In some instances, it is the case that even with a good job, being able to rent an apartment or house in Dublin is out. We are slowly but surely reverting to the situation which destroyed the country. We must take it very seriously. We cannot allow a situation to re-emerge where people must commute to Dublin from Kilkenny, Mullingar, Longford and places like that due to a bubble that is about to be inflated in the city once again. We cannot realistically say that property rising prices, rental demand and rents are a good thing. They are not. They will lead to further wage demands by those at work, which will lead to inflation and in turn to the competitiveness cycle we found ourselves swirling around in during the good old days of the last Administration. The housing situation is critical to ensuring that does not happen.

There are a number of aspects to the issue including a planning element. We continue to have a situation whereby even when adequately zoned land is available on which there is a willingness to construct, an application may wind up in An Bord Pleanála where it can be stuck forever. There is no legislative timeframe by which an appeal must be determined. We have a land-use policy issue regarding how and where we build houses and the quality of them. We have a further issue which relates to the local authority sector itself. We must ensure that the local authority is protected and enshrined as the housing authority. I have a concern in this regard, which my colleague, Deputy Bernard Durkan, has been enunciating for a long time. It one removes responsibility for housing from local authorities or dilutes their role, one loses local knowledge, connectivity and the essential element the Minister of State will know well from her work as a public representative on Limerick City Council and in the House; the relationship between local representatives and housing authorities. That relationship is critical to ensure that people are housed appropriately and adequately. It is something which has been lost sight of recently.

The Minister of State's Department has inherited a number of problems including huge waiting lists and the legacy of unfinished estates. I welcome the money which has been allocated to unfinished estates. While it is a relatively small amount, it is a start. Previous speakers gave examples of different initiatives in their own areas. The Minister of State was in my native town, Newcastlewest, to turn the sod on a St. Vincent de Paul-led voluntary housing initiative. Up to now, we might not have seen these issues in rural Limerick, but we see it now. We see it in every county. The response is welcome. An example of a legacy issue with which the Minister of State is dealing is an unfinished housing estate in a very small village in my own area, Carrigkerry. It is symptomatic of the problems local authorities are confronted with and the bills which will have to be met.

I was listening to the radio on my way to Dublin the other day and a cohort I am very concerned about is generation Y, which represents those born since the 1980s. Other Members, including Deputy Olivia Mitchell, spoke about them. For many of them, the aspiration to buy a house is fast becoming just that, an aspiration. Listening to the radio, I heard about how more and more of them are staying at home with their elderly parents. It is having an impact on their capacity to start families and stand on their own feet. It also has an impact on their families' lives.

Access to credit, properly zoned land and good quality housing is something with which we will have to grapple. The net contribution of the construction industry to the economy is at an unsustainably low level. It was unsustainably high previously when we built houses in the wrong locations where there is now no demand. Nevertheless, we could double our output of private and public sector housing in the morning and would still be running to stand still. I encourage the Minister of State to consider the credit union movement. Access to finance is a very significant issue. Consideration should be given to local authority engagement in public-private partnership arrangements with credit unions, which have approximately €14 billion on deposit currently. There is no better borrower to lend to than a local authority or the State as one knows one will get the money back. We may be able to leverage some of the savings on deposit in credit unions to do valuable infrastructure work in our communities, including the provision of sewerage and water works, housing and amenities. The local authority sector could adopt a partnership model whereby a credit union or local community owns the houses and rents them to the local authority over a period in return for an annual dividend and option to purchase after ten or 20 years. The State cannot do this on its own. If credit union members are being stymied, there is an opportunity to obtain finance.

I implore the Minister of State to consider a particular labour activation measure by way of housing aid for older people and persons with disabilities, which is an issue affecting every community. There is a significant backlog of work across the State to deal with, inter alia, roofing, showers, handrails, footpaths and disabled toilets. There is a great deal of work that can be done. Given the credit union movement and access to low-interest loans, we must start to think about these things differently to access finance to carry out this work. We have shown what can be done with the home renovation incentive scheme for private individuals. A similar initiative should be considered for local authorities. What are local authorities doing but using the State's money to solve a housing or disability problem for an individual? If that can be done without the burden of VAT, etc., it would be really welcome.

We all know them as they are in every street in the country. Elderly people have doors and windows that need to be replaced and ramps put in place.

This debate is hugely important. I would like it broadened out to an Oireachtas committee where ideas can be thrashed out. An issue about which I am concerned is that a person from Abbeyfeale, County Limerick, who is in a good job in the Dublin docklands, and on a good salary, returns home at the weekend and says he will never be able to own a house in Dublin and will have to start commuting from places such as Kildare. That is the slippery slope that this country went down from 2004 to 2008 and for which we will be paying for a long time. I implore the Government to do whatever needs to be done, be it the imposition of stamp duty on second properties or some other measure, to ensure we do not go down the road from which we are still trying to recover and from which we will be recovering for a very long line.

I wish the Minister of State well. I know her heart is in this work. She has displayed great commitment in regard to local authority housing in Limerick in her native city. I am sure the experience she has gained as a Limerick City councillor and a Deputy for Limerick East for many years will bear fruit in this area.

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