Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom comhghairdeas a dhéanamh leis an Teachta Curran tar éis dó bheith tofa mar Chathaoirleach. The time available to this important committee is short. I was not a member of any committees in the previous Dáil. To ensure members are armed with all relevant information, I ask that the Library and Research Service facilitate the committee by circulating all documents and reports produced by or submitted to previous committees that are germane to our deliberations. This should include documents submitted by the various agencies, including voluntary housing bodies. I agree that we must interrogate such organisations to determine what needs to be done to resolve the problem.

The committee should invite before it representatives of the National Asset Management Agency and the County and City Management Association. The latter should not be asked what is wrong but how we can fix the problem because that is the way to deal with the issue.

Rent allowance, the housing assistance payment and so forth are creating major controversy. Community welfare officers are the practitioners at the coalface and their representatives should also appear before the committee. Housing accommodation officers deal daily with homelessness in my constituency. We must ask them what solutions they would put in the mix.

Regardless of which parties or personalities end up sitting around the Cabinet table, it should be noted that my party has produced an action plan for housing similar to An Action Plan for Jobs. The committee should draw up a document itemising specific proposals for solving the problem, some of which will be complementary, while others may be contradictory. We must agree on what we can, produce proposals and press the button for the housing issue to change radically.