Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)

I am absolutely flabbergasted. Not in my three and a half years in this House have I heard the level of bland bluster that I have heard from the Minister this afternoon. It is nothing short of a scandal. The Government has done nothing in nine years to tackle the housing crisis and it is in denial about that crisis. Waiting lists have continued to increase, house prices have gone through the roof, local authorities are trying to get out of their responsibility in social housing provision, while landlords continue to flout registration requirements. That is just a small number of issues in the sector.

I thought this might be a case of incompetence on the part of a Minister of State who was either unwilling or disinterested in the whole area. Unfortunately, I see that is not the case; it is total Government denial. The Minister of State refused to accept that there is a crisis in housing. He has shown no sign of being on top of his brief or of trying to deal with this crisis. That was bad enough, but today we have a hapless Minister who comes in and smiles at us. His best offer is his statement that he will roll out a strong programme of investment in social housing. When? How? Where? That is the most bland nonsense I have heard in a long time. The Minister should treat the House with more courtesy and lay out some kind of policy and not waffle his way through his portfolio. The Government has continually tried to downplay the level of difficulty faced by people trying to secure both social and private housing.

The Government also showed contempt by shelving, or binning, three significant recently published reports. The previous speakers have already alluded to the NESC report, which sets out the target of at least 73,000 units of social housing between now and 2012. Where is the commitment to that in the Minister's speech? The ninth progress report from the All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution dealt with the issue of land. NESC is a Government established body, but the all-party committee is a body of this House with a majority of Government Deputies. It recommended in April 2004 that the Government deal with the affordability of land. What has the Minister done with that report? It is sitting somewhere in his office, with no movement whatsoever. We also had a report from Goodbody economic consultants. It is no wonder the Minister's head is in the clouds when he is sitting on all of those reports. It is a scandal that he has not given any commitment on any of those issues in this House today. Where does he stand on those issues? When will we hear from him on those reports? What is his position on them?

I want to examine some of the issues surrounding the housing crisis that the Minister refuses to accept. A total of 48,413 households are on the social housing waiting lists, many of whom are living in squalor. They live in damp, draughty accommodation, their children suffer and often lack food, adequate clothing and, certainly, heat. In such an environment, what chances do they have in terms of education? Many of these people are also being ripped off by unscrupulous landlords. What is the Minister's response today? He does not mention them and completely ignores them.

The other scandal associated with this housing crisis concerns the 40% of people in the private rented sector who are in receipt of rent supplement, which costs a total of €400 million per annum. This is a bigger scandal than either the electronic voting issue or the PPARS computer system joke which the Government played on the people. It is unacceptable for the Minister to come into the House, smile at Members and give no commitments except for some bland nonsense. The Government has set no targets for the abolition of housing lists. Without targets or some kind of timeframe, how will the Minister deal with the problem? We have received no indication from him, which is an absolute scandal.

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