Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

11 o’clock

Perhaps I missed something, but I am not sure if the Minister of State has circulated the wording for her statutory instrument. It seems she has not done so. In an earlier debate she told me I was not long in the Dáil, which is true, but I do know we do not vote on the promise of something. The least that should be done is that the Minister of State provide the wording for which she was asked the other night and circulate it to Deputies to let them see what is about to be voted on.

I repeat my question about the housing assistance payment, HAP. What will happen if people refuse to move to the HAP scheme? There are people who are seriously thinking that if they are forced to move to this scheme, they will make themselves homeless rather than lose the benefit of having spent ten or 11 years, in some cases, on the housing waiting list.

My only consolation, if the Bill goes through today, as I assume it will, is that it might be the whip needed to get the 100,000 families on housing waiting lists nationally to mobilise and demand the political change needed. When it gets out what is involved, people will be incensed.

I have just come from a radio discussion about the housing bubble in Dublin. I am sure the Minister of State is aware that economists now recognise that we are either in a bubble or on the verge of one. What is fuelling it? It is the lack of social housing and housing generally, yet there is inertia on the opposite benches about moving to deal with the issue. It is the Government which dictates whether social housing will be built by funding councils and directing them to build.

On general house building, the private control of the construction sector is proving to be an impediment. For example, in the Fingal County Council area some 13,000 planning permissions have been granted and not taken up and there is adequate land zoned to build thousands of houses.

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