Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the representations for the presentations. There is no doubt we have a major crisis on our hands and that we need a national housing plan because I believe everyone has a right to a home. However, increasingly, the voluntary housing groups are being given more of a role when it comes to housing, even in terms of the way they raise funds. The local authorities do not have the same ability to do that. We know from the Minister, who states it repeatedly, that this issue will end up in Europe because we are borrowing money but not accounting for it. That was one of the reasons we suggested that local authorities would borrow in the same way as the voluntary housing groups and set up a similar system. The Minister of State, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, says it is possible. The local authorities say it is not. I do not know, but with a little imagination I believe it can be done.

In terms of the homelessness problem, the Minister of State said she will end long-term homelessness by 2016. That is fantasy. It will not happen, but I know the local authorities nominate people to the representatives' organisations. Do their organisations insist on a percentage of homeless people coming to them or are we relying on the local authorities? I understand a certain percentage is taken, which is very important. We have to be careful with the terms we use. It is not "homelessness"; it is "long-term homelessness". That is not to say we will solve the problem of homelessness. It is playing with words, and it is deceiving.

On getting the best value for money, we have NAMA, new housing, etc., but looking at some of the second-hand housing, in the same way that the local authority buys for senior citizens or whatever, is there any value in examining that area because houses will be much cheaper? It might cost them to refurbish them, which might be an issue, but with a little imagination I believe it would work out cheaper.

It was mentioned that, overall, there are 35,000 units in the voluntary housing sector. Does that include HAIL and Fold Ireland? Is that the entire sector? We have seen Fold Ireland take over housing in Finglas east from the local authority. I am annoyed about that. I do not believe the local authority should do that but they do not have the funds. That is where we need to have a little more imagination.

I am aware NAMA has been given a role in terms of how it delivers housing, etc. It was written into the NAMA legislation that it had to get a gain in that regard. We should consider changing that legislation. This issue should be passed over to the local authorities or to the voluntary housing groups to deal with. For various reasons we have thrown away a chance of getting that good housing. We can talk about the housing the representatives say cannot be utilised in certain areas but with a little imagination some of those could be utilised.

On the scheme for selling off houses, we ran into trouble with Dublin City Council in terms of the flats, apartments and so on and it never happened. The representatives might comment how we might get around that.