Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

I am delighted to support the motion brought forward by the Labour Party's spokesperson on the environment, Deputy Gilmore. Many young people in particular throughout the country are delighted that at long last this issue has reached the political arena in the form of a motion before this House, which the Minister could support. What is happening is a grotesque attempt at privatisation by the back door of all local authority services. I did not believe the Taoiseach when he said when Deputies Burton and Michael D. Higgins raised the matter that he did not understand this, did not know about it and that it had never been brought to his attention. He went on to lecture us that the legislation which is clearly necessary and which is demanded in this motion could not be retrospective and asserted that nothing could be done about the anguish and suffering which young people undergo in new estates in many urban and rural areas.

I have spoken to one or two of the new householders inhabiting the massive new city being built across my constituency, Dublin North-East, the constituency of Dublin North-West and just south of the constituency of Dublin North. There are perhaps 40,000 to 50,000 housing units in place and the first few hundred families have moved into this brave new world of very high density with a total lack of public services and no proper planning organisation. For example, it seems it is only in recent months local authorities discovered there is no national system of education in this country and that it was not possible to provide hospitals or schools or provide even outline planning for them down the line in this vast new district.

Young people who finally managed to put together the €250,000, €300,000 or €410,000 in this new development are being hit by management companies with a minimum extra of €650 as an estate management charge. This is part of the chaotic and disgraceful housing market for which the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and his predecessors have been fully responsible. They have been a failure in this area. In the dying days of this Government its representatives have talked about regulating the auctioneering profession. They had eight and a half years to do so, to stop gazumping and the suffering people must undergo when trying to get a roof over their heads. They had eight and a half years to deal with the grotesque, unbelievable and outrageous profits of more than €150,000 to €200,000 per housing unit being made by developers. They did nothing about it. Why would they since those developers own the Minister's party lock, stock and barrel and they own the Minister? Why would its representatives stand up to them? This disgusting system of privatising basic services and charging people on the double is the final straw to break the camel's back.

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