Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)

As a socialist, I believe in a rights-based society and I therefore believe every man, woman and child has the right to a home and to security, comfort and dignity therein. I do not expect Fianna Fáil to do more in this regard than it has done in the past ten years. There have been ten years of unsurpassed wealth, with no excuses as to resources or ability, yet there is sweet Fanny Adams to show for them. Fianna Fáil's miserable efforts have resulted in the virtual collapse of the social housing project and an unprecedented number of homeless citizens in this rich Republic. Consequently, 45,000 families, or approximately 18,000 men, women and children, are on the ever-lengthening waiting list for council houses.

Fianna Fáil's conscious policies and decisions have made it impossible for hard-working young families to buy their own homes. This did not happen by accident; it was deliberately engineered by a series of actions by Fianna Fáil Ministers that rewarded and continues to reward their rich friends at the tent at the Galway races.

The land and building speculators and so-called investors were given massive, generous tax breaks that enabled and encouraged them to involve themselves aggressively in the housing market. They still enjoy these tax breaks exclusively and taxpayers are still paying this particular piper. The result has been a financial bonanza for the few fat-cat friends of Fianna Fáil and an unmitigated social and financial disaster for a large section of society. Fianna Fáil's policy has resulted in a massive building boom, although those who need houses cannot afford them due to the housing inflation caused by the tax-break-sheltered speculators. It is such that one in six houses built in the past five years lies idle and is held by an investor vulture for inflationary gain.

The investor-vultures are the people the Minister of State with responsibility for housing, Deputy Noel Ahern, said should be taxed out of existence. He is the Minister of State and not a neutral observer. When will he act or was his statement just an idle threat? The budget is due in a few weeks and it will present him and his ministerial colleagues with the opportunity to take action. However, the speculators and vultures are losing no sleep. They know they have greased the paw of the Fianna Fáil election machine and that the party always looks after those who pay up.

A good and representative example of the depth of the housing crisis is evident in a town in my constituency of Kildare North, namely, Celbridge. It is a town comprised largely of private housing estates and has a population of 18,000. There is a very low level of unemployment in the town, yet there are 1,600 families on the waiting list for affordable and social housing. At the current rate of provision of affordable, council, voluntary and co-operative housing, it will take some 20 years simply to clear the backlog. This is unacceptable and the Labour Party can and will do much better.

The Labour Party, if in Government, will work to achieve its objective of providing a secure, comfortable home for everyone living in the State. We have the resources and all that is needed is the political will, which Labour has. The party's spokesperson, Deputy Gilmore, outlined to the House last night and in his policy documents, launched earlier this week, a package of measures to deal with the crisis caused by Fianna Fáil and its fat-cat friends. These include bringing an end to homelessness, which is a scandal in this rich country. We can afford to and must do so. Also included in the package of measures are a building programme to provide homes for those on the housing waiting list, with a turnover of 10,000 houses per year; ensuring tenants have the right to purchase their homes; measures to acquire building land to provide homes at prices affordable to young working families; and an end to the poverty trap caused by the rent subsidy scheme.

On behalf of those on the waiting list for housing, those who cannot afford a home in the inflated market, the homeless and those who care for them, and parents who rightly fear their children will never have their own homes, the Labour Party, when in Government, will tackle and solve the housing crisis. It needs their electoral support to do so. The speculators, builders and investment vultures will vote for Fianna Fáil, as they always do, while the aforementioned people should vote against that party in their own interest.

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