Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I have a raised this issue on a number of occasions with the Minister of State. Does she not recognise that the progress being made in this area is pathetic given that the census of population identified that there were 340,000 empty houses and having regard to the number of people on the housing waiting list, namely, some 100,000 families? It is unbelievable that so little progress has been made when the housing waiting list is longer than it has ever been and we have more empty housing units that we ever had in the State.

The Minister of State does not seem to acknowledge that NAMA and the number of empty houses identified are not a panacea because there is a shortage of housing in areas such as Dublin and the surrounding areas in of some of the bigger cities. There must be some direct building of social housing if we are to make even a dent in addressing the record length of the housing list. It is unacceptable. Some families in my area have been on the housing waiting list for 13 years. What proposals has the Government to reduce that waiting time to acceptable levels? Nobody should have to wait longer than two or three years on a housing list.

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