Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate and state my support for the Bill.

Kildare is an area where the full 20% portion is included in the housing strategy. It is an area in which whole towns are under construction and there is every conceivable type of housing unit, including apartments, duplexes and triplexes. The whole shebang is under construction at present.

It is an area where there is an expectation, because of the extent of the development, that the housing list would be wiped out if this measure was working the way it is intended to work. However, what we have seen are the crumbs from the table. We have seen a couple of dozen units, at the very most, covering both affordable and social housing.

There is a total lack of transparency around this issue. Those on the waiting list for both social and affordable housing find it impossible to get information about availability, or when different housing will become available within new developments visibly under construction.

Local authorities also seem to have wound down their own direct programmes and they have not been amassing land banks because they were depending on Part V to deliver on the housing programme. It was supposed to be a cure-all. Not only would it deliver on housing, but it would also provide for good integration. Many people welcomed this, including myself.

Land banks which would have been appropriated as part of community gain under development plans, for example, did not come about because developers complained there would be a double take if they had to contribute under Part V as well as community gain. So there has been a loss in more than one respect.

In Kildare, 1,500 families or individuals are on the waiting list. That understates the case, as every day of the week I come across people who have been scratched off the list because they did not complete the assessment last year. A 22-page assessment is pretty daunting for some individuals, and it is part of the reason people have gone off the list. Where land is provided in lieu, the planning and building process must be gone through, which adds to delivery time. Despite the fact that there is a fast-track approach for local authorities, it often takes them an excessively long period to actually deliver the houses.

There is a price in human terms to pay, but there is also an economic price to pay, a point which has already been made. A third of all people in private rented accommodation are being supported by the State. As long as these people are supported by the State, that money will come from taxes. It is an idiotic policy.

Developers are not offering housing units, but apartments. I can see nothing but apartments being offered on social and affordable housing. Although it is very suitable for some family types, it is not suitable for others. Very often in affordable housing, there is a significant amount of cost going towards management companies, etc.

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