Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I cannot disagree with any of the sentiments expressed by previous speakers. The only qualification I make is that no blame whatever attaches to the Minister of State in respect of the situation in which she finds herself. This is a problem she inherited, which arose as a result of the neglect of public authority housing for a period of at least ten years. The latter used to be the bedrock of housing policy in this country. In the past we could rely on a certain number of people in a particular income group to acquire local authority housing or, alternatively, to buy private houses by using local authority loans. The second option to which I refer has not been available for at least ten years or more. During the so-called boom, the provision of local authority housing was gradually phased out and there was a move to what we have come to know as voluntary housing. As a result, we now find ourselves in a situation where there are no houses available and where we cannot accommodate people.

In the 1980s the local authority in my county, Kildare, was in a position to approve 400 loans per annum.

That was in addition to building 350 houses per annum. That is the guts of 1,000 houses in a year. We have been unable to achieve that in the past 15 years or get within the shadow of it. Sadly, all of those people are now back up on the housing list.

Great emphasis was placed on the fact that apartments would be the order of the day in future, that we would become like Europeans and live in apartments from now on and that we would not need houses. That did not work out but that is another story. Sin scéal eile. It certainly did not work out in my area and I imagine it did not work out in the constituency of the Leas-Cheann Comhairle either. Irish people, by tradition, tend to want to have a fixed abode that they own or that they have a right to aspire to own at some stage. They then take ownership of it in the manner to which they have become accustomed. It is their investment in life and they rely upon it. The sad part about it is that during the so-called boom we went away from that model and started this transient housing policy, which has been remarkably costly in an administrative sense. It is unsuitable to meet the needs of the people and it is certainly anti-family because that type of situation does not accommodate families in any way. Sadly, we now have a serious issue in this regard. In County Kildare there are 8,500 families on the local authority housing list. I believe a further 500, 600 or perhaps 1,000 will go on that list by the time all the information is collated and all the people have been adequately registered. The problem is being exacerbated by virtue of a housing shortage in the eastern region.

Landlords of buy-to-let properties have been pressurised by the lending institutions to get tenants on board who are capable of paying a higher rent. The result is that a large number or cohort of people have become homeless. These are people who, in years gone by, would never have dreamed of being homeless, but that is the position now and it is getting worse. The problem is simply this: we can do nothing to help them because we have no houses. We have no houses because for the past 15 years we did not have a policy of building adequate local authority houses or providing adequate numbers of local authority loans. As a result, some of these people have been on the list for ten years or more.

One of the problems I have seen in my time in public life has been the lack of serious forward planning to meet housing needs. It is not rocket science and it is simple to do. It was possible to do it in times gone by. In times gone by the local authorities were able to identify precisely the housing requirements in a particular area, whether public or private. They were able to adjudicate in respect of the county development plans on what was most appropriate at any given time. The cause of the problem is that there was no forward planning and we are in the current situation as a result.

There was another reason as well. There was an emphasis on apartments and one-bed accommodation. Naturally, that is not suitable accommodation for families. It simply does not work and it is not possible to bring up children in that kind of an environment. What about the unfortunate families who have children with special needs and who are trying to exist in that kind of environment? None of that was thought out. Some people did what was termed a "desktop assessment" as a result of which we got what we got, which is totally inadequate and unsuitable. It is an appalling thing to have to say to the people we represent that we are sorry but that someone did not plan properly in the past and as a result they will have to wait now. A number of families are homeless. The terms "homeless" and "homelessness" have been bandied around a good deal but this is serious stuff. This is something like we have never had before. There is a degree of homelessness which is affecting people through no fault of their own and these people are prepared to do what they have to in terms of paying rent or whatever is required within reason. They now find themselves in a position whereby they cannot afford to pay rent. As it stands, the rent supplement in the eastern region is far short of what is required. Rents have increased by up to 40% in the past six months in the part of the country I represent. I have listened to some of the pundits explaining that housing rents and house prices have gone up by 1%. I am unsure what the 1% refers to but I assure the House that this has been my experience and that of many other people in the areas with which we are all familiar.

I wish to raise the issue of supply and demand. Ironically, we have heard on numerous occasions in the past five years people stating that many houses which had been built would have to be demolished, because we did not need them and they were unnecessary. Now, we know that we do not have enough houses to meet the needs of the people in a large part of the country. Furthermore, in other places we have houses that we do not have people for, but they are so far away from family support and the settlements of the applicants that there are of no benefit.

At this stage there must be a solution and I believe we must approach it in two ways. In the short term we should try to acquire existing houses where we can. That can be done in a variety of ways, including by way of Government bond to support such developments specifically. We all recognise that the balance sheet cannot afford to be skewed in any way. In particular in the aftermath of the bailout we cannot afford to allow our borrowing to increase. If that arises in a meaningful or serious way then our interest rates will go up because we are in the open market, we have exited the bailout and everything we do in the economy is reflected in the interest rates that we are charged. One possible way around this would be a government bond. This has been done before in this jurisdiction and in other jurisdictions for different purposes.

The magnitude and scale of the problem is such that if we had 2,000 local authority houses in my constituency ready tomorrow morning we could fill them without a problem and we would not have made any significant impact on the numbers on the list, although it would have been a major help. We need such action now because there was no action whatsoever for several years. This is the position without taking into account all the problems that have arisen in respect of shared ownership loans.

I was one of those who had serious reservations about shared ownership loans from the beginning. I had reservations simply because these loans allowed people to buy a property which ordinarily they would have been unable to afford. Why was that situation presenting? It was because there were no local authority houses being built and therefore they had no option. Those unfortunate people had no option except to dive in and do the best they could. What really killed them was the fact that the interest rates or repayments on the rental part of the equity of the house went up by 4.3% per annum. That was never the original intention. Someone in some vital position at some stage decided to put the screws into the unfortunate people on the housing list. It was altogether wrong to do so because what has resulted is that those people are being penalised for being on a housing list or for being available to seek a local authority loan or shared ownership loan or whatever the case may be.

We need to approach the situation at that level and reintroduce the old local authority loan system and try to introduce a system that is fair, equitable and available. We should not have a situation whereby those in the Irish Credit Bureau are the people who approve the loans. What does it have to do with them, in heaven's name? I know what people will tell me. They will say that we must credit-check and ensure that people are capable of paying. What should we do with them? Should we leave them homeless? We are supposed to address the problem.

I support the Minister of State in her efforts to deal with the situation. It is a crisis situation now. It is not a situation she created. I do not intend to look at the people on the other side of the House because I know we cannot blame anyone on that side of the House now. It would be very bad for the psyche of the people over there if we were to blame anyone on that side of the House. The memory does not extend that far back and therefore we will absolve them from all guilt in that area. I appeal to the Minister of State to do whatever can be done in the short term, the medium term and the long term. Let us put in place the necessary forward planning and emergency measures to deal with the situation that presents.

See this speech in context