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

I thank the Minister for his reply. In drilling down into the real facts contained within the figures we see that 2,000 leased units under the RAS can never become long-term homes for the occupants. Some 3,000 leased units are provided by the social housing agencies for which we do not have specific delivery plans on the table. They are leased units and the legislation does not allow for their occupants to buy them and call them home. There are just 1,400 units to be built or acquired by local authorities. Local authorities are being squeezed out of the process, but they are at the coal face as they have up to 100,000 people seeking to be housed. They are the ones, the doors of which will be knocked on when the courts repossess the homes of those who have no option but to accept the bank veto rather than adhering to the intermediaries' solutions under the existing legislation. Demand outweighs supply and the Minister is not addressing the severe supply issue. All experts and stakeholders have consistently said the only way to address the issue is to embark on a building programme. As Deputy Brian Stanley said at a committee meeting last night, in the 1930s 8,000 houses were built per annum by local authorities and the State. That is the sort of measure that is absolutely necessary to address what is a calamitous crisis.

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