Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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It could be done in mixed-tenure developments. The estate I live in is private but there is local authority housing in it. People driving in cannot see the difference. There is no difference. Nobody even knows who is living the local authority housing, although I would know as a former councillor. There is no need for this duplication and this rigmarole, and the extra cost. I am saying this to Mr. Moloney as the head of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and a senior official. He is the Accounting Officer of the Department. Someone somewhere needs to take action on this. I am saying this out of frustration. It annoys me to think that any money is being wasted on architecture. That is nothing against the architectural profession. If we need to perfect some of those two-up, two-down houses, three bedroom semis, or one or two bedroom bungalows for people who have disabilities or pensioners, that is fine. Let us do that. The only blank canvas there should be is the actual site layout with the infrastructure in place. We cannot have a blank canvas for each individual house. It is absolute madness. The Department talks about this framework it has of a certain size for rooms, the energy requirements and all of that. That is all fine. That is not the issue. It has to go a step further by using the same house. I would not see any problem with it. If Mr. Moloney was on the housing waiting list, trying to buy an affordable house or get a home, would he have an objection to living in the same type of house that I was living in? Going back maybe 30 years to when he would have been trying to get going with a house, would that have bothered him? I do not think it would bother anyone. It would be irrelevant. If people out there on the market want to buy something that looks a certain way or they like the look of a house, that is fine. This would not stop any of that. That happens and that is legitimate.

If the State, as the player, is trying to get housing moving, it cannot be done with one foot on the accelerator and one foot on the brake. That is the point I am making. Will the Department come back to the committee with a note on this, if it can be addressed directly with the head of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage?