Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I very much regret that the Minister blames the local authorities for failing to build houses. The fact is that the Minister and his Government have retained the four-stage process demanded by the Department. That is slowing down the building of social housing.

How many times have we asked the Minister to bring forward the tenant purchase scheme to allow pensioners to buy out the house they have rented, in some cases for 40 years? In Kerry there is funding to build just 12 rural cottages from 2016 to 2021. Rent costs have reached €1,400 in the town of Killarney. I asked the Minister to do something about the tax that is being levied. In most cases the Government levies a tax worth 50% of the rent.

The housing assistance payment is a disaster. It is €690, including the 20%. This is all that a tenant can get in the County of Kerry. On top of this the tenant has to pay money from that amount to the local authority. The Rebuilding Ireland loan is a disaster because it is so hard and there are so many hoops for people to jump through. It puts people through the mill, over and over again, before they actually get the funding.

I am aware of a case of a vulture fund demanding to put a man, his wife and their four children, with his mother and his brother who is in a wheelchair, out on the road. This is instead of the Government buying that house by giving funding to the local authority to buy the house. This would give the family a chance to rent it back. We have asked to do that several times. Why will the local authority not do it? It could buy the house and give the people the dignity to stay in the house. I put it to the Minister that there will have to be a house somewhere. This is the truth. There will have to be a house somewhere-----

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