Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Clearly the lack of housing supply is the key problem and the total output for 2014, which included the first six months of the Minister of State's tenure, was 11,000 units. There is talk of about 15,000 units for 2015 which is not even half good enough. The Minister of State has now at his disposal €300 million from the EIB and the Government, and he has established a working group with the nine major voluntary housing agencies and the local authorities.

However, we want no more talk. Let us have some action because nothing is happening. There have been endless meetings. In my area, Dublin Bay North, which represents about a quarter of Dublin city, we have seen nothing. There has been nothing so far in the north fringe. There may be ten or 20 houses and 40 apartments coming forward in an area which has 5,000 families on the housing list. That is the nub of the problem.

Last week the Governor of the Central Bank, Professor Honohan, published the new mortgage rules. Did the Minister of State or his Department have any input into those rules because many observers feel that one of the net effects will be to price many young families out of buying their own homes in urban areas and thereby further increase the demand for rental property? Up to 40% of homes in the Dublin area are now rented.

On 25 January, the Dublin Region Homeless Executive stated that 359 families with a total of 780 dependent children were in emergency accommodation. The Minister, Deputy Kelly, always seems to be very interested in his legacy. His legacy at the moment is that during his period of Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government one family in this city became homeless every day.

It seems clear from the constitutional advice - the advice of lawyers at the well-attended briefing organised by Senator Hayden - that there is no constitutional impediment to us introducing serious real rent regulation, as opposed to the timid efforts of Fianna Fáil in 2004, to give us a modern rented sector as exists in Germany and many of other European states. We want action now - no more talk.

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