Rory Hearne (Dublin North-West, Social Democrats)

The Minister is saying that they could look at how they are allocating their funding and that they may need to allocate it differently, however. There are issues in my constituency that I have spoken to people about. I have visited people's homes in Ballymun and I have seen mould on the walls and on pillowcases and dampness in sheets. I am sure the Minister has seen this in council houses himself. As I have spoken about before, and as the Minister will be very familiar with, these are very significant hazards that people are living with. A number of people have come to me recently who have issues with mould and damp in their houses but whose children also have additional needs, for example, as a result of autism. I know one of these people actually wrote to the Minister specifically and that he replied to them. I just do not see how it is acceptable for us to allow a situation to arise where people are left living in accommodation that is completely unsuitable to their needs and that is also substandard, resulting in impacts on health. I spoke about this in the Dáil last week and said that this is costing the State more. Not investing significantly in ensuring we have proper housing standards is resulting in costs for our health service. People are presenting with asthma and children are presenting with bronchitis, development delays and mental health issues.

The Irish State always built housing and provided it through the councils but we made a massive mistake in the 1980s and 1990s in shifting away from public housing. Part of the problem is that housing is seen as a commodity and not as what it fundamentally is, the building block of life. That is why it is very frustrating that, as was expressed by Deputy Gould and others, the allocation to councils to ensure housing is of a sufficient standard is clearly not adequate. How could it be adequate when people in my constituency are writing to or meeting with me to say that water is literally flowing down the inside of their houses and that there is mould? The council is telling them it is going to come out to fix it. It might send someone out to do something small but they are then put on a waiting list for years. Much of this housing was built as part of the regeneration. It is not old housing. It is housing that was built 20 years ago. I put it to the Minister that the allocation of funding to local authorities to deal with issues arising from substandard local authority housing is still inadequate.