Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We are talking about Housing for All, but my fear is that what is being proposed is just a continuation of the failures of Rebuilding Ireland and that we will not manage to deliver the housing for all our people require. None of us need to go into the ins and outs of the difficulties. I am sure the Minister of State, similar to everyone in the Chamber, is inundated with people who cannot get on the housing list, people who can get on the housing list but cannot get a council house and, beyond that, people who cannot even get a rental property.

I know a large number of Sinn Féin councillors in towns such Dundalk spend a great deal of time dealing with renters or Blue Sky Property in trying to facilitate people into HAP properties. We are dealing with a dysfunctional situation. People coming to Dundalk to work in places like WuXi will be lucky to get accommodation and they will, possibly, be taking it from a family that is not able to get it. Dundalk Institute of Technology, DKIT, is under severe pressure. The students' union has a list of people who cannot get accommodation in Dundalk, which it never had previously. DKIT is an education instituteion where many of its students come from Dundalk, or within shooting distance of it, which just shows the level of the problem we are dealing with.

We are dealing with multiple issues. I am sure any Deputy from County Louth who will talk about Housing for All in the Chamber will mention the fact that the maintenance budget in Louth County Council is not dealing with the problems we have, especially in respect of windows and doors. We welcome the retrofit programme but we do not believe it is sufficient. I will come back to the Minister of State and the Minister with a proposal from the council on what needs to be done from the point of view of ensuring people are able to get adequate works done. The likes of Dundalk is dealing with very old housing stock and, therefore, has an issue beyond what is currently happening.

It is as simple as this. Housing for All does not have the solutions that are required. The big problem is supply and we need to deal with that, which includes affordable cost rental, affordable mortgages and council houses. We just need the State to kick off and do it. We could do it at points in time when there was no money in this State. Caithfimid rud níos fearr a dhéanamh amach anseo, seachas an méid a rinneadh cheana.

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