Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Carey is welcome. From reading his CV and listening to his opening statement, I believe, for what it is worth, that he is eminently qualified to do this job. We need fresh thinking in this area. It is appropriate to give Mr. Carey time to actually frame that thinking. I am sure he has his personal views on things as well. He will also, however, be restricted somewhat by the policy decisions made within the Oireachtas and by the funds allocated to this sector. There is a job for us to do in the Oireachtas if we follow what Deputy Coppinger said. Social housing is just one aspect. The level of funding needs to be greatly increased in that area because the witness could give a figure today of 40,000 if he wanted to. However, he could not deliver them unless the funding was given by the Government. That is a policy decision. It is our job to equip Mr. Carey with the tools to be able to do his job.

Looking at the Housing Agency itself, it says that its vision is to enable everyone to live in good quality, affordable homes in sustainable communities. It states that its mission is to be housing experts driven by an understanding of the central role housing plays in people's quality of life and life changes. It says its values are independent influence, quality expertise, innovation and solution focused, respected reputation and collaboration. However, if we look at the vision and mission in plain black and white on a piece of paper it shows how far we are away from that at the moment. I refer to how serious the situation we as a country are in. That is why I believe that fresh thinking is needed and business acumen and expertise is needed.

I ask Mr. Carey, should he be appointed to the role, which I hope he will be, to challenge the status quo when he believes it necessary. There is an element, and I have found it, of some silo thinking on this. We need a whole of Government, a whole of agency approach and a whole of party approach as well to fix this. To do that, some very difficult decisions will be required but we need people to step up. I have been critical of policies in some areas but I will support policies where I see them as constructive. This is not a crisis; it is an emergency. Our homeless figures are growing day by day and the number of children in emergency accommodation is over 3,500. That is unacceptable in a modern republic and in a wealthy society.

The other aspect is affordability and giving hope. I refer to giving hope to those people working 40 and 50 hours a week, paying taxes and trying to save for mortgages. Prices have run away from them. They are basically going to be the new "generation rent". They are going to be paying other people's mortgages and paying institutions' property funds. We have got to give hope again to people. That is why Mr. Carey's role is going to be crucially important. When he gets his feet under the table, at that stage it would be appropriate for him to come back to talk to us about policy. I, as my party's spokesman, with my colleague Deputy Casey, will be outlining our policies and priorities as the Chair, Deputy Coppinger and others will do. I ask Mr. Carey to take a collaborative approach and to reach out to see what the best solutions are. We cannot afford time on issue.

The targets set by local authorities, published today in respect of social housing, show how far away we are from making any degree of progress into the social housing lists. We have to look at rent affordability, mortgages, mortgage arrears, which Mr. Carey mentioned in his statement and which is still a big issue, repossessions and so on. When he is in the job, I ask Mr. Carey to look back every day at the vision to enable everyone to live in good quality, affordable homes in sustainable communities. That should drive everything that we do. I am not going to ask specific questions about what he should or should not do. When we quantify a problem, which we all can, it can be fixed. I firmly believe this is fixable. We just need to re-energise the approach taken. That is why I think Mr. Carey's appointment will move towards that. When he gets the job, I ask him not take everything he hears for granted and to challenge the status quo. His CV and his experience show he does that. That is why I know that he is eminently qualified to do the job and I hope that he is appointed without further delay. I wish him all the very best and look forward to working with him to deliver solutions. That is what this committee is committed to doing.