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

In response to that, we could be at cross purposes here. I have a strong view about the provision of local authority housing, and have had all my life. I did not have to read about it anywhere. I grew up with it and have pursued it all through my political life, which is quite a long time.

I have no hesitation in saying that unless we rely on the local authorities to provide it, to be responsible and to have the main thrust of the burden to deal with that, then it is not going to happen. The problems we are now experiencing are a result of dividing the responsibility and taking it away from the local authorities and handing it over to private agencies or voluntary agencies. The agencies do very good work in their respective areas but are not capable of dealing with the burden of local authority housing that is required now. The next part of the agenda is going to deal with that.

The system which is in place has failed for the reason I have just said. There were too many people with responsibility and nobody had responsibility. I spoke about this publicly and privately on numerous occasions over the past 15 years and I predicted that this was going to fail.