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

I thank Deputy Doherty for identifying the difference between his views on the subject and mine. He did not say who was right, however. That also has to be evaluated. I would claim that I am right and I know a fair bit about this particular subject, having dealt with it at the coalface in an area that has suffered from a very significant amount of development over the past 20 years. We will have to wait and see but what I am saying is that there is now a need for a change in the way we deal with the issue of housing. That need for change is manifesting every hour and every day and leads me to believe that if something is not done urgently, really serious issues will arise. They are coming before us already. People are under such pressure that they are thinking of things they should not have to think about at all to solve their problems. It is that serious. We have never been here before. I have never seen things at that level before.

We see problems in the case of a person who applies for a local authority house, for example. I am talking about willing workers who have worked all of their lives. They would not be the highest paid in the world but they discover that, because they have worked so hard for so long, they do not qualify for a local authority house. They are above the income threshold. The local authority will say it is sorry that it cannot help and advise them to come back in five or ten years' time. This is disgraceful. It is just crazy. It drives people wild. These kinds of situations drive me, and all of us here, wild.

There is then the case of people who apply for a bank loan. The response is that the bank is sorry but that it can only provide a third, a half or three quarters of the full amount requested as their income is not high enough. Why is that? It is because property prices have gone way up. They are coming very close to the edge of tolerance. These people are caught between having too high of an income for the county council and too low of an income to qualify for a loan. In any event, they have insufficient income to fund the purchase of a house in the marketplace so that is out. There is nothing happening fast for them. I believe we can find a way and a means of dealing with this. It is not that we do not understand the issue. The Government has priorities it has to deal with and so on but the time has come for an emergency reaction. I repeat this deliberately. I know the Minister is well disposed towards listening to the proposals that come forward from Members of the House who are at the coalface all the time, trying to learn from it. I am still learning from what is happening at the moment. This is very dangerous. We should take emergency steps. If there were no houses available, I would not put this forward, but there are. However, they are in an enclosed market and the people cannot get at them.

Last night, like everybody else, I was travelling across my constituency to attend public meetings, clinics and so forth. I had to arrive at a juncture very close to my own home where a family found themselves facing eviction. I do not believe there is an entitlement to evict them. They have been living in rented accommodation for 17 years. I always advise people against that. All of my life, I have advised people against that because, at the end of the day, they have no security. That is what has happened. They have been told, I believe illegally, that they must vacate because the landlord wants to sell or because a family friend or family member wants to move in. That is no way to handle a housing situation. People need to have some sense of security.

HAP is now a farce in my area. It does not work at all. The fact of the matter is that top-ups are now so widespread that the borrower cannot fund it. Invariably, they end up borrowing from a credit union or a bank to help them pay. Again, this is unsustainable.

The jury is still out but I believe we have to change to an emergency reaction to this rapidly developing situation. Can I say more? I would really love to. I believe I am right. I apologise to my colleague, Deputy Doherty. He is coming on and he is learning but he is not right just yet.