Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)

I will pick up where my colleague left off. Housing lists and the number of people looking for housing from local authorities will continue to increase. The Minister needs to take action on market intervention or he will have a problem that cannot be solved. Action needs to be taken in accordance with the recommendations of the All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution, of which I am a member.

I will begin by addressing the issues raised by that committee. The Taoiseach wrote to the former Chairman of that committee, Deputy Brian Lenihan, in February 2000 asking it to address the issue of house prices and whether the Constitution was an impediment to taking action to address the escalating price of houses and the fact that so many ordinary families could no longer afford to buy a home. The committee addressed the matter in spring 2003. It invited submissions on the issue from the public in April 2003. We received 140 written submissions and the committee subsequently heard 50 oral submissions in July and September last year.

The committee subsequently held a number of meetings and a report was published in April 2004. The report was agreed by all parties, which included the two Government parties, all Opposition parties and one Independent Member. In effect, it represented all the interests in this House. There was no dissent on the recommendation which, as my colleague, Deputy McManus said, was that of the Labour Party, namely, we could implement the terms of the Kenny report and there was no need to change the Constitution, particularly in order to address the issue of providing affordable land to local authorities so they build houses or arrange for houses to be built in order to address the needs of those on housing lists.

As a member of that committee, I ask the Minister of State to explain why no action was taken. The implication had been that the Government could not do anything about the price of housing because of constitutional impediments. The conclusion of the committee was that the Constitution was not an obstacle and that its recommendations should be implemented. It is no harm to read Article 43 of the Constitution which states:

The State acknowledges that man, in virtue of his rational being, has the natural right, antecedent to positive law, to the private ownership of external goods. The State accordingly guarantees to pass no law attempting to abolish the right of private ownership or the general right to transfer, bequeath, and inherit property. The State recognises, however, that the exercise of the rights mentioned in the foregoing provisions of this Article ought, in civil society, to be regulated by the principles of social justice. The State, accordingly, may as occasion requires delimit by law the exercise of the said rights with a view to reconciling their exercise with the exigencies of the common good.

We agreed that because of the exigencies of the common good one could intervene and bring about some legislative change that would free up land at affordable prices for local authorities to build houses. In effect, that was the conclusion of the Kenny report, namely, that land could be bought by local authorities to build housing at existing value plus 25%. When will the Minister implement the recommendations and bring forward legislation so housing can be provided for existing needs? We need to intervene in the market to ensure that ordinary families can afford to buy houses and that local authorities can build them.

That report also made recommendations in regard to social and affordable housing. It suggested, for example, that section 48 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 should be amended to include social housing under the definition of public infrastructure and facilities. It also suggested that local authorities should identify lands in their development plans and reserve them for social and affordable housing to ensure a greater supply of social and affordable housing is made available without influence from external market and competitive forces to enable residential areas to be planned in a socially-inclusive manner and to control the cost of zoned land designated for the provision of social and affordable housing. There is a great deal in the report but the main recommendations are that the Minister can introduce legislation that will address the issue.

See this speech in context