Tom Hayes (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)

I am very pleased at the opportunity to say a few words on this important motion and congratulate Deputy O'Dowd on tabling it.

Nothing takes up so much of our time as getting people into houses — whether by loans, planning applications, social and council housing or whatever — at our constituency clinics. It is therefore good to have this motion tabled to bring our views and those of Members to the Minister. He should look on this motion as an opportunity to see what is happening to people throughout the country. It varies from area to area. In my constituency each week, there is nothing that I have to deal with as much as planning applications.

In the run-up to last week, we heard an announcement regarding planning. I do not want to pour cold water on it, since I welcome an initiative by anyone to ameliorate a very complex and difficult problem. However, when it comes to allowing people to live in rural Ireland, last week's document contained very little that would change anyone's life. I have discussed it with planners in several counties, particularly those outside Dublin and the east. In my part of the world, neither the people nor the planners involved locally see any great change.

The failure of the proposal to address the cluster issue in planning — allowing young people to live in their own houses in rural areas- was a missed opportunity. If there is anything in need of examination by planners, local authorities and the Department, it is cluster-type development. There is great potential to allow more people to live in rural communities. There are a great many families, including farmers and people in cottages with half an acre or an acre of land on which two or three members could live in a cluster-type development. I am deeply disappointed that it was not dealt with in the proposals.

I also want to mention the difficulty of people on what can be regarded as very good wages and in good jobs in getting onto the housing ladder and getting their deposit together, something that Deputy O'Dowd has pointed out. I commend the proposals that he has brought to the House. Action is needed on behalf of those people. Only last Sunday in my area a new housing development was being opened and advertised for sale, with an open day from 2 o'clock until 4 o'clock. A number of young people were walking around those houses. When I spoke to them, they said they wished they could manage the deposit. That was their genuine worry.

I know the Minister would like to help, but he must do something that will assist those people I met last Sunday in Dundrum, County Tipperary, looking at a €325,000 house. Others were viewing three-bedroomed houses in Tipperary town, which would cost in the region of €200,000, asking where they would find the deposit. That is crucial if we are to move and allow more people to get onto the housing market. The abolition of the first-time housebuyer's grant was not a good move.

One of the things that frustrates me and every young person trying to buy a house is the level of development levies, charges and VAT — all taxation, no matter how one looks at it — they have to pay. I would like to see published the actual tax that everyone paid, whether it be VAT or levies to a local authority, when the lists are published of how many houses have been built in south Tipperary, north Tipperary or Wicklow. The figure must be frightening. It is probably available, but I would like to see it highlighted, since it is time to show people the double taxation. We need more relief and support for those who are paying such colossal figures because of house building.

Another issue is people trying to secure a council house. Since I first became a member of a local authority in 1991, the numbers on the housing waiting lists of the four local authorities in my constituency have increased every year. That is not good in a country where unemployment has come down so drastically and there are so many people working. Local authorities are slow, and assessing whether people qualify and putting them on an approved or emergency list is also slow; they must wait a long time. It is totally unfair and unjust in this day and age in one of the wealthiest countries in the world that we must say to those people that they may not get a house and that they have to wait so long. The entire system of allocating houses needs to be improved drastically. If one walks into a bank or building society tomorrow morning, one will be given a loan within 24 hours if one qualifies for it. It is deplorable that up to seven years can pass from the time one completes a housing application form to the time one is given a house. It is one of the most inefficient uses of public money in the State. As members of the Committee of Public Accounts, Deputy Rabbitte and I should bring to the attention of the committee the deplorable slowness of local authorities in assessing the needs of individuals. This matter needs to be addressed because it is of significant concern.

I would speak at length about a substantial number of other issues if I had the time to do so, but I think time has caught up with me.

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