Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair for the opportunity to contribute. I apologise as earlier I had to step out to go into the Chamber. It was to talk about the banks, funnily enough, and what they are doing to us at present.

The presentations made were sound and helpful. I appreciate listening to experienced people like Professor Kinsella and Dr. Healy and getting their outlook not just on this budget but also past ones and looking forward to future ones. I am taking in what they are saying very closely.

Certain things that happen are a catalyst for making us worry about the decision-makers. We are having such difficulty in the housing market at this time. This includes the provision of social housing and the young couples who are managing to go about building their own homes but are then faced with a concrete levy followed by a U-turn on that levy. In the Dáil the other day, I tried explaining to the Taoiseach the harm done to the construction industry and to people's confidence. I am thinking of the young couples who were going about, or in the middle of, building their homes and then heard the Government thought it was a good idea to put up the price of concrete products by 10%, and we all know that would have finished up being a lot more. Then very quickly after that the Government began rolling back on that and saying it was going to make exceptions for first-time buyers or builders. There was all this flip-flopping and total indecisiveness. That is what is going on in the housing sector for example. It is why we have such a serious situation. Everybody knows I have tremendous regard for Deputy Durkan. I listened closely to what he said about telling Dr. Healy 20 years ago or whatever that housing was going to be a massive problem in the future, and it is.

It is probably a bigger problem than he could have envisaged 20 years ago. However, my biggest concern is that we seem to be getting nowhere. With all due respect, if Sinn Féin were in power tomorrow morning I do not believe it would be fixed. The way that the housing issue is being tackled is completely and absolutely wrong.

I say this because I want people to realise that when I am talking about it, I have considerable practical experience. As I always do, I want to declare an interest in housing. It is not that I got any silver spoon in my mouth or anything. I did a house when I was 19 years of age. It was the height of struggling, working at it day and night. Some friends and I worked with lamps to get that going and I have grown the business since. That has given me an experience of what is involved in the provision of housing. Some politicians seem to think that those who are involved in the provision of private housing are some sort of evil people and are doing something wrong.

First, they are paying 56% of their income in tax, which is a great thing for the State. If they collect €1,000 euro, they have €440 to run the property, pay the insurance, keep the roof right, pay the bills and pay the bank. People seem to forget about that. I believe that is an important role when responsible people are at it, but there is an exodus out of it at the moment. Every friend of mine who had property is getting out because they are being demonised every day by all politicians. I am not picking on any one group.

If Sinn Féin says something, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party want to say it louder because they think that must be the right thing to say. Nobody seems to have an individual thought process and people do not seem to be able to make up their own minds about what is right or what is wrong. When Irish politicians get up in the morning, they wet their finger to see which way the wind is blowing and that is the way they will walk to work that day because they think they may as well go with the flow. People need to stand up for something. People who do not stand up for something, will fall for everything. We had politicians in the past who knew about building homes. They knew that local authorities needed to be adequately resourced to build accommodation that could initially be rented to local authority tenants and then sold on to them, which secured that family with a home.

Something that is not being done at all now is a building called a single rural cottage. Nobody is building them. Local authorities are not building single rural cottages now. They were a great thing. The family provided a site on land, possibly farmland, that was owned by the family and that became their home for generations. We seem to have forgotten all about that.

I do not want to hog this issue but I have great concern over the future. In my clinics I might meet a mother having trouble with her housing. If she has a boy or a girl of 14 or 15 with her, the first thing I think is about the housing needs of that new adult in two or three years' time and that the girl could be a new mom in three or four years' time. We are not taking care of the parents. How will we be able to take care of the children when they become parents? It is a major concern. I worry enormously when I see politicians who do not seem to have a clue what they are talking about making out that they are the bee's knees when it comes to housing.

I always follow what Dr. Healy says. I listen very closely to him and I respect everything he has stood for over the years. Do not get me wrong, there are times when I have disagreed with him on certain aspects. However, that is good because we cannot agree on everything all the time. Plenty of other Deputies wish to contribute. I thank the witnesses for the engagement and for giving their time.