Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)

A twin-track approach is required in the case of families that have broken down. I stress that males in particular suffer from the problem I outlined.

Government policy is forcing people to sell their homes. The Minister may not be aware that, in the former North Eastern Health Board area, people who have to enter nursing homes do not have the income to pay the fees being demanded and, as a consequence of this and decisions of the Health Service Executive, they are forced to sell homes in which another family member is living. I am dealing with a couple of cases of this kind, one of which involves a person who has been living in the family home for at least seven years. The need to sell family homes means the people living therein are placed on the local authority housing list. This is a shame and a sham. I ask the Minister to request the Minister for Health and Children to examine these issues because they are real and are creating enormous stress for families.

The Minister did not address the questions of where and how local authority houses are being built. I read a press release by the Minister that stated that high-density housing was the way to go. It is regarded as the answer to everything. I do not know if it is, but if we are to have high-density developments, they should be built to a high standard in a high quality environment.

Despite what An Bord Pleanála says, we will have 17 or 20 storey buildings around the country. It is critical that the quality of the environment in which they are to be constructed is very high, especially if families are living in them. It is all very well building a new shopping centre or apartments, but we really must consider the quality of the environment in which they are located. Otherwise children will have nowhere to go and will be forced to walk the streets. If we are to have high-density developments, we should attract designs of the best quality and reward and encourage those responsible. Design competitions, which ought to be run, if they are not run already, should be used in this regard. I fear, however, that there will be high-density buildings of poor environmental quality, with the consequent problems.

The Minister made a speech in August on what local authorities are doing throughout the country in respect of rezoning land. He was correct to question the location of houses being built in terms of the national spatial strategy. Government policy is forcing people to move increasingly far from the city of Dublin, where they might otherwise live, to build, buy or rent homes. Government policy, including the national spatial strategy, has failed because people are moving to locations as near to Dublin as possible. Developers are buying up land and building the homes, but they are developed in an absolute wasteland. As we noted from the by-elections in Kildare and Meath, many thousands of people are living in new housing estates in communities that have no facilities, recreational amenities or national schools. They have absolutely nothing. If the Minister's national spatial strategy were working, those communities would be developing in the growth centres that were identified, and, as he knows, in some others that were not.

One cannot have a national spatial strategy that does not work, nor can one have a decentralised State office in every small town and community in the country. Government policy is not working, people are living in poor accommodation with no facilities and commuting times are getting longer. Before the Minister entered office, were commuters from the north east or his area in Wicklow getting up earlier than they are now? People are getting up earlier to get to work from their housing estates with no facilities. The Minister's policy is just not working — he has not got it together and it is an absolute sham and a shame.

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