Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this issue. In recent years, housing has not only been topical in public forums such as the Dáil and the Seanad, but in homes and at firesides. For people, ensuring that their loved ones were going to college or to find homes for themselves was challenging. There were considerable difficulties. Any political party or public forum that did not acknowledge this challenge would have been disingenuous.

Upon examination, the demographic changes, including the influx of immigrants, the dynamics of our progressive economy and low interest rates and taxation, occurred during a short period. We needed to react to the changes. Most people would acknowledge that the Government has done its best to try to address the fundamental problems in respect of affordable housing.

The demographic changes, including young people who are reaching family-formation age, returning emigrants and migrating EU citizens seeking to reap the fruits of our vibrant economy, placed significant pressures on housing. Tribute should not only be paid to the Government and local authorities, but also to the construction industry because it raised the bar, increased productivity to a phenomenal number of units — 81,000 in 2005 — and will step up on that mark by another 8% or 10% next year.

However, problems remain and it would be remiss of us to ignore the fact that, for many people, buying a house and starting a family is a distant dream. Parents are remortgaging and capitalising their assets to provide large deposits for their children to purchase homes, which is a challenge we must address. Part V should be explored further. The Opposition would claim that we rowed back on our Part V commitments, but the principle therein is positive. As someone who proposed something similar in 1992 and 1993, it was obvious from the incremental annual increases in house price inflation that young people would find it difficult to purchase homes.

In principle, Part V is an important factor in society. I do not say this because it helps people to buy homes. Rather, it relates to the formation of society and how we live with one another, which is a fundamental bedrock of the Government's intention in terms of housing policy. Historically, public housing programmes were mainly reactionary, including during the TB crisis. For example, Dr. Noel Browne's decision regarding the demolition of tenements in inner city areas and the building of large-scale housing schemes in the suburbs were primarily required from a health point of view, but there were considerable social implications. There was no cohesion among the communities and there were no supports or education facilities. The basic requirements of communities were not in place.

Regarding social housing, the opposite is now the case. As Part V is in place and local authorities can decide on what portion of the 20% of housing should be affordable or social, we are bringing people together as opposed to drawing significant lines of divergence between those that have and can afford to assist themselves and those that have not and need assistance.

Many local authorities are abdicating their responsibilities under Part V. Nothing is wrong with local authorities addressing social and affordable housing needs, putting responsible tenants into social housing and ensuring that those areas are managed in a way that encourages this type of——

See this speech in context