Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

The Government is not living in the real world. Ministers have lost touch with their constituents. The minute the Minister of State got his car and was driven around, he lost control of himself. When he was over here he had all the answers, yet over there he has no answers.

Fianna Fáil was always the party of the builders. The builders fall over themselves to get into the camp in Galway to hand over money to the party. They are telling the party that they are giving over the money so that houses are not built. That is what they say to the young people of Ireland. The houses must not be built so that the builders can control the market and the prices and they can give Fianna Fáil more money. Yesterday, I listened to a presentation by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul on social housing. I was told that there were 6,000 houses built last year for social housing, when the Government promised three times that number. The Government has let down the poor and the weak.

When it had an opportunity to make the builders hand the land over to the local authorities, the Government rushed legislation through the Dáil on Christmas week and guillotined the Bill to make sure that the builders would be protected for the Galway races. The builders then could give more money to Fianna Fáil, and that is what is going on. These are the vested interests that are dictating the construction of houses in Ireland. The Government is not doing so because it has handed over control to the builders. I worked as an auctioneer and I know that housing is all about supply and demand. If one controls the supply, there is no problem. The Government and the builders are controlling the supply. It is happening in my area. Builders from the Fianna Fáil Party are buying the first, second and third field so that they can control the housing market for the next 30 years. They will dictate how many houses are built every year and at what price.

The Government parties are the greatest robbers of all. Young people trying to start out are paying big money for sites and to builders. Then they have to pay crippling taxes to the Government. That is a disgrace. If the Government parties were serious about housing, they would give young people the opportunity and would not charge them any tax. They would give them a tax rebate if they were serious about the housing market, but they are not. They are serious only about the builders who have controlled the market for too long.

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