Pádraic McCormack (Galway West, Fine Gael)

I propose to share time with Deputy Clune. I welcome the publication of this Bill, which is a long time in gestation. For three years I have asked on the Order of Business when this Bill would come before the Dáil. In February 2007 I asked the then Tánaiste, Deputy Harney, who was taking the Order of Business. Deputy Harney assured me the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill would come before the House during that term. At the end of the term I asked whether the then Tánaiste was misleading the Dáil because the Bill still had not come before the House. She replied that she was not and that this term means the next term. I did not understand what that meant but we are now a good number of terms and one general election on from then. The extract from the Official Report on the date in question states:

Mr. McCormack: When will the necessary legislation be introduced to allow tenants of local authority apartments to purchase them? I refer to the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill.

The Tánaiste: That Bill is due to be published in the early summer.

Mr. McCormack: Is that before or after the election?

It continues:

Mr. McCormack: That is a very important distinction.

An Ceann Comhairle: It is not possible to answer that question.

Mr. McCormack: I wish to clarify whether it will be before 1 June or after. What is the early summer in the Tánaiste's calendar?

Mr. F. McGrath: After the Seanad elections.

Mr. McCormack: The Tánaiste does not have an answer.

This was after the Tánaiste assured me it would come before summer 2007. We have had a couple of summers since then and only now do we have the Bill.

I mention the delay in bringing this Bill before the Dáil because it has repercussions for the legislation's effectiveness. The purpose of the Bill is to improve housing services and their delivery by amending and extending the Housing Acts of 1996 and 2004 to give effect to the programme of social housing reform measures outlined in Delivering Homes, Sustaining Communities. These are very fine words and the Bill coming before us aspires to them but the country is broke and we have no money to follow through on the aspirations. If this Bill had come before the Houses when we were all looking for it two or three years ago and when the country was not as broke as it is now, we would have had the necessary finance to enable local authorities fulfil the aspirations in this Bill.

There is no money available to local authorities even to construct local authority houses. There is no money to deal with the housing waiting lists either. In Galway city there are 2,300 on the housing waiting lists and the number is increasing every day. There are more in the county as a whole on the waiting list. The housing officer there told me no later than today that the unit used to deal with approximately 20 applications a week and it now deals with 80 applications per week in Galway city alone. It received a circular from the Department this week indicating that if anybody is off sick or on maternity leave in the housing or other departments, they cannot be replaced. In other words, staff are physically unable to do their jobs.

Problems in contacting the authority are a fault of the system rather than the staff. On ringing the number, one gets through to an answering machine which will ask if one wants to speak in English or Irish, dialling 1 for English and 2 for Irish. One will then get through to another answering machine which asks what department is required and asks the person to dial 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6. If 3 is for housing, one would dial that number. Another answering machine asks if the person wants to talk about rents, local authority housing and so on, and that number can be dialled. One could get through to another answering machine before the line would go dead.

That is my experience as a public representative trying to contact the housing authority. How in the name of God can an ordinary person deal with this? Every one of us in the House and outside it knows that is the position developing in local authorities and public bodies which people must contact. It is sometimes through no fault of operators but eventually when I get through to somebody — I should speak for myself — I am inclined to be a bit harsh on that person sometimes. One then gets the bad name of being contrary when making contact.

Frustration builds up as a result of the system we have allowed to develop. I have spoken to various managers about this and asked them to correct the issue but either nothing can be done or nothing is done about it. I am digressing somewhat. Like the Acting Chairman, I often speak about local problems when I get the chance.

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