Ms Sarah Clancy:

I can come in on that point. It is not quite that simple. I am familiar with Clare, so that is the area I will speak about. We have a crisis at all levels of housing in Clare. We have a crisis in rental housing and the availability of privately owned housing. There is also a crisis in social housing. There has been an 81% increase in homelessness in Clare in two years. The numbers of people affected are small.

KPMG did a housing analysis in respect of Clare. I do not mean to cast aspersions but I may be about to do so. KPMG did its analysis of the future affordability of housing in Clare for Clare County Council. To our knowledge, KPMG did not talk to anyone living in a house in Clare. One of the measures used to calculate the future of affordability of housing in Clare in our county development plan was GDP. One is left thinking, "Oh, come on." That measure is affected by industries such as financial services and aircraft leasing. We also have 10,500 empty houses in Clare. It is a non-functioning private market. I am not saying the State needs to run the whole market but it does need to intervene because the private market is failing to solve the crisis in Clare. The State needs to intervene in a way it is not intervening. Councillors have families growing up in their areas with care responsibilities, farms and whatever else. People who have a real local connection to the area cannot get planning permission because 5,000 holiday homes that got planning permission are sitting there and left mostly empty. People will not accept they cannot have houses when people who only use their houses three weeks per year can have a house. It is a justice, and not a human rights, issue. It is an issue of unfairness.

The population of Clare has increased. We were allocated 4,300 housing units by the Office of the Planning Regulator. We need those units now, not in the future. We need them to stop families becoming further marginalised because of the lack of housing in Clare. Is there a way we can take or get our hands on some of the empty houses? That would be the ideal solution from a climate perspective and every other perspective. These are not derelict houses; they are vacant houses. Using them would be far more climate friendly for us than trying to plan for new houses. However, we have no means to make that happen. Are the councillors to say we are not to have housing and should depopulate our communities? One cannot expect people to vote against the interests of those who elect them. That is what I think is the situation being outlined. I am not saying that is everything. People like independence. Changes in behaviour must happen. We are not going to see rural depopulation in the future. We are going to see rural repopulation, considering all the factors. International factors include the likelihood that we will become a country of net migration. We are already seeing that. There are 3,500 new residents in Clare who were not there this time last year. That does not include the increase in population noted by the CSO. Some people are working remotely and travelling back to Clare. Change is happening fast.

We absolutely can have public transport in rural areas. Ireland is a tiny country. We can have public transport. It is a matter of what we are prioritising and how we are spending funds. The private market alone will not deliver that service. Private contractors will play a role but the State must be the default provider of socioeconomic rights, including transport. If we took that approach and moved from there, we would probably make better policy. That is easy for me to say. I am not in government.