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

Public representatives have, and should have, an equally intimate knowledge of the subject. I am glad that all of us here, without exception, have such knowledge. The witness is absolutely right in identifying the lack of social housing as the problem. Some of us strongly objected to the policy changes that came about approximately 16 years ago. We knew the problem would come home to roost eventually, which is where we are now. It is no harm to repeat that. We can talk forever about the subject but we must return to direct build and return responsibility for local authority housing - I never agreed with the words "social housing" - to the local authorities. That is the only way it can be resolved.

Points were raised about people with particular difficulties, such as vulnerable families perhaps with special needs, addictions and so forth. They are better served by a body or bodies that have specific skills in that area. The local authorities do not have that, and I have always said as much. There is a huge difference in the two requirements.

Sadly, in the middle of the boom there were homeless people in this city and throughout the country. All of us had to deal with it from time to time. The system was unable to deal with it then, and that is the problem. If it was unable to deal with it in the middle of the boom, how could it possibly pretend to deal with it in the aftermath? A question now arises for ourselves. When do we get to a situation where we remove the necessity for emergency housing in so far as possible? There will always be a minimal requirement in that regard but, generally, we must remove it. What we are doing at present is housing people in emergency housing and that should not be the case. We must move away from that. There is also the issue with waiting lists, when a person is on the waiting list and they are on an emergency housing waiting list as well. Eventually one reaches a situation where to get on the emergency waiting list one must go on another waiting list, which is unacceptable. Unfortunately, it is one of the legacies of some of the things I have discussed already.

I compliment the Simon Community for identifying the issue of refitting houses that have been handed back. That happens all over the country. Some local authorities are beginning to discontinue the practice whereby the kitchens were ripped out of perfectly good houses, tossed into skips and replaced with what was originally put into that local authority house. If one were to explain this to somebody outside the group of people here, they would not understand how it happens. However, it happened all the time. The purpose of the exercise allegedly was to ensure the local authority would not have to replace a teak or an oak kitchen or whatever the case may be. The logic of it escapes me, but it is causing a large problem.

I wish to venture into an area that was not covered, the shared ownership loans. The rental equity portion has been a massive burden on the unfortunate people concerned, particularly over the last ten years. A change took place whereby an increase of 4.7% was placed on the rental part of the equity annually. It is an absolute disgrace and makes it impossible for those people. It was a penalty.