Patrick Nulty (Dublin West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Ministers say we need to stimulate activity in the construction sector, a policy I support particularly in metropolitan areas as there is a severe need for three-bedroom family homes. However, this will not deliver social housing, an area in which there is a significant need. According to media reports, the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government plans to amend Part V of the Planning and Development Act 2000, which stipulates that 20% of units in new developments have to be social or affordable housing. The previous Fianna Fáil Government eviscerated that Act when it allowed local authorities to take cash in lieu of such provision. The Government needs to explain how it will deliver social housing.

I, along with other Members, have called on the National Asset Management Agency, NAMA, to provide a social dividend through social housing. So far, what it has offered is derisory and the units that have come on stream have been unsuitable for families. The real challenge facing Dublin city and other parts of the country is how to provide long-term housing solutions for families. They are the ones at risk of becoming homeless as they are rack-rented out of their homes. Meanwhile, there is not a sufficient supply of social housing to accommodate these families.

Ministers refer all the time to “my Department”. That sort of trench warfare going on within government is not how one runs a public and social policy that is effective, efficient and equitable. Health, housing, education, the environment and children’s rights are linked together. Unfortunately, it appears individual Ministers are only concerned about their own line budgets, as well as their reputations in the mainstream media and their public relations presentation, rather than about actually developing a cohesive and fair social and economic policy.

I believe in a dynamic economy and support foreign direct investment. My constituency is at the forefront in attracting American and other companies into Ireland. At the same time, one needs an equal and just society going hand in hand with the economy. Over the Government’s three years in office, objective research has shown that our society has become more unequal. Cuts have been implemented across the board in areas such as child benefit and the respite care grant while the Government refuses even to examine very detailed proposals put forward by Tasc and others for a wealth tax and for those earning more than €100,000 a year to contribute more in this national emergency. The retrospective recapitalisation of the banks - the game-changer talked about by the Taoiseach and Tánaiste - has never happened. The Government’s record is one of failure and it needs to be challenged.

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