Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)

I wish to speak briefly about a small group of people who are losing out significantly despite all the changes in the housing area. There are cases in my constituency of families living in housing without sanitary facilities. Something is fundamentally wrong. We are living in the 21st century with major high-tech sewerage schemes becoming the norm, but some people do not have toilets in their houses.

Three generations of one family were living in a house without a toilet. A young girl who is now 12 has grown up never having had an indoor toilet or any toilet. She is being housed with her mother in council housing. As a result, the three generations have been split up and the grandmother is still living in a house with no toilet. It is extraordinary for any person to find himself or herself living in such conditions given that this is one of the richest countries in the world. I hope and expect that the Minister of State sets a target to ensure that no person lives in such primitive conditions before the Government goes out of office.

The provision of central heating and proper windows and doors is another issue. My constituency seems to have more than its fair share of housing estates that have been recently built, perhaps in the past 20 to 30 years.

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