Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)

That was when the Labour Party was in Government. That was the right policy. In places such as Crumlin and Sarsfield Park in Lucan, where I live, those people went on to buy their houses and their children eventually went to university. They were given a good chance in life and housing policy was good then. Since this Government has got in it has fallen apart and has been totally developer-driven.

I had some questions today on housing statistics and the Minister of State, Deputy Finneran, came in and gave promises that 27,000 social housing starts would be delivered over the period 2007-09. Going by the past record of this Government, there is no way that is going to happen. Apart from the fact it is too little too late, one could not believe it. The Government has constantly made promises about social housing which it has not kept. Today I asked how many people are on the housing list and I was told the latest figures go back to 2005 and was referred to the website to get the figures. Does the Government not have the up-to-date statistics? The best it can do is direct me to a website for figures from 2005 instead of answering my oral parliamentary question.

The human side of this is that family formation has not happened. People have been put out in rented accommodation where they are not encouraged to have their partners with them for years and they never have the bonds that go with forming a family. By the time they get into their council house, eight years later, the unit is a single mother with two children or a single man with, perhaps, a one-bed house and his children visiting. Money has been wasted on private rented housing. The Government is repeating all the mistakes of the past in the type of housing it is building. It is not integrated social housing. It is cutting out any amount of green space and leaving people in terrible conditions in social housing. One needs sustained delivery of council housing, to deliver proper communities and homes and to stop relying on private developers to provide housing.

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