Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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The Government gave a specific commitment regarding investment in the provision of social housing. The Minister of State gave a long reply in which he talked about every citizen having a right to adequate housing. Nobody would argue with this. Unfortunately, however, the record of the Government in the past three years does not give one much confidence or hope that adequate provision will be made. That is why we are asking that it be written clearly into the legislation that some of these moneys should be invested for that purpose.

The Minister of State referred to NAMA, but the reality is that the number of properties transferring from that agency to local authorities has been minuscule. He also referred to the capital programme, but it has been decimated. In one part of County Westmeath the allocation been reduced by more than 150% in the past three years. We moved from a situation where Westmeath County Council was building 40 to 50 houses a year to one where only four were built last year. This simply cannot continue. We have set out very clearly and explicitly in these proposals that some of the funding should be invested in the provision of social housing. There would be a very good return on such investment and it would provide an infrastructure and an asset for the State. This type of investment is also labour intensive and will provide job opportunities for tens of thousands of people who, through no fault of their own, lost their jobs in the construction industry in recent years.