Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I commend my colleagues in Sinn Féin for putting forward this motion and assure them of my party's support for its content. I do so out of respect for the representations it is receiving, no more than ourselves, in this area and I do so also not seeking to question the good faith of that motion. I refer to a point made by some of the Sínn Féin Deputies last week when I brought a Bill forward in Private Members' business. They could not help themselves but to question the bona fides of my party in bringing forward that Bill. It was unfortunate that they should do that because we were all elected with the same mandate, namely, to represent those who give us the privilege to do so. Some of us are given the added responsibility on behalf of our parties to speak on and hold the Government to account in various areas.

I notice the Minister, Deputy Kelly, has left the House. He had a lot to say about those of us who were not here when he got up to speak initially. Thankfully, his speech has been provided to us so we can scrutinise it in our own way. What I and others have to say is a matter of public record. I noted that the Minister could not begin to comment in this debate without referring to his belief, and that of many of his colleagues, that the fault for the predicament which we are in lies with previous Governments, in particular Fianna Fáil-led ones, three and a half years after this Government was elected to office and having given commitments to address this issue among many others. However, that sort of rhetoric and campaigning fell on deaf ears last May and if the Minister continues in that vein, I have no doubt the Labour Party will face similar decimation, and rightly so if that is the sort of politics we can look forward to.

Construction 2020, to which the Minister alluded, rightly recognises one thing, namely, that supply is the answer to the existing crisis. It refers to the potential for 75 different actions to address it. I do not think there is any great need to get into the depth of those actions. A colleague of mine spoke on Leaders' Questions earlier today and put a solution of one action to the Minister for Finance and that was that €1 billion from the National Pensions Reserve Fund be put into a strategic fund and be used to launch a new round of home building across the country. The Government talks about affordability to provide that sort of funding but it was not too shy to raid the National Pensions Reserve Fund when it came to the setting up of Irish Water and to the provision in the State of the new super-quango which is Irish Water. Some €500 million was taken initially for that purpose. Up to €180 million was taken for its start-up cost. We were promised last year that the funds from the local property tax would be available to those who paid it in the areas in which they reside by virtue of the services provided by local authorities but that too was raided and people were sold a pup again. Some €500 million was taken from that source. Those were two avenues of funding which could have been used to address this issue.

Despite the progress being made by virtue of the sort of policies being pursued and that this Government voted against on numerous occasions prior to taking office, it now wants to take the credit for the marvellous figures which exist on a macro basis, based on the balance sheet and so forth. We recognise and acknowledge that those indictors are positive and that without them, we could not look forward to the sort of recovery we would all like to see happen and wish people to become part of because they are not part of it now. Without those indicators, they would have no hope and we acknowledge that. However, it means nothing when one thinks of this crisis.

I started by acknowledging the representations members of the Sinn Féin party are receiving, no more than myself and members of Government parties. It is the predominant representation a Deputy will hear at his or her clinic. The provision of housing is at crisis levels and the figures prove it as does the inaction by Government over the past three and a half years. The mantra was always that the funding model was not available in these straitened times and there was no means by which the Government could generate the sort of revenue required to fund a building programme to address this issue.

Last year we built only 8,000 private and public homes but 25,000 are needed. The crisis is deepening but all the Government can say is that it can do nothing because Fianna Fáil led us down this road and that it will take another term of office to address the issue. The only thing that jumped out of the Minister's speech, apart from repeating much of what was said in this House before by previous Ministers, was that his absolute priority is to produce a plan. He is three and a half years in government and he thinks that because he is in the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government three months, he has the authority to spend the next 18 months producing a plan on which he thinks he will be re-elected. Give me a break is the answer to that.

My colleague, Deputy Kitt, referred to some policy indicators we gave prior to the local elections and which I have repeated on many occasions during Question Time with the previous Ministers, Phil Hogan, and the then Minister of State with responsibility for housing, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan. I will not waste time or paper outlining 75 actions but will outline four or five which I have done before but which have fallen on deaf ears. I will repeat them in the hope somebody might take notice. The Minister, Deputy Kelly, wherever he is, whether sitting having a cup of tea or in his office, slagged me off for not being here at the start of his speech but saw fit to leave the House himself. However, he can check the record as to our proposals. His colleagues should have given them to him many months ago. He should set up a fund to launch a new round of home building across the country. He should develop voluntary housing associations to a scale where they can access credit and start to build. He can use the tenant purchase schemes to fund future investment and repair works by local authorities. He should also allow families on waiting lists to be given the opportunity to move into accommodation which, according to the authorities, is not fit for occupation but which they and their extended families can make fit for purpose and let the rent reflect that thereafter.

I have heard the talk about NAMA month after month since this Government took office and of getting 2,000 units from NAMA each year. We should have got 7,000 units by now but how many have we? The Minister thinks we should stand up and applaud him for getting 700 units. Where is the social dividend in that?

Where is the leadership required from the Government to extract the social dividend that the people deserve? I asked for a dedicated team to be established in each local authority to deal specifically NAMA. That might allow us to see more than the meagre 30 units negotiated at the Church Hill development in Tullamore, which are long overdue. The Minister spoke about the funding being provided for adapting houses for older persons and the disabled. In my county, up to 70 people have made representations to me because they are in dire need of funds to adapt their houses to meet medical or age related needs. The letters they receive from the local authority tell them there is no funding to do this work and that they need not reapply or ask the same questions on the scheme for another three to five years. That is a reflection of this Government's inaction in housing policy. Unfortunately, many of the people who are being told to wait three to five years will be in the cemetery when the letter of approval arrives.

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