Joe Cooney (Clare, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank everyone for coming to the meeting. To fix the housing crisis, the Minister said he would need to be radical and take risks and that he is determined to use every opportunity to drive on the delivery of homes. I compliment him on that. The main blockage to the Government delivering homes is probably the lack of wastewater infrastructure. Its delivery is shockingly slow and for rural towns and villages across the country, it will unfortunately take years and decades. I have proposed one solution several times, both in committees and the Dáil. It is a certified, modular, wastewater system that is totally different from the old developer-led systems. The Housing Agency and the Land Development Agency both agree they would be happy to look at the potential of such systems. As a radical solution to significant blockages to housing delivery and for the 33% of the population that lives in rural areas, towns and villages, will the Minister support the use of such systems in the delivery of social and affordable housing by local authorities?