Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to address this matter but I was disappointed at the announcement by the Minister today. There were multiple announcements over the past six months since the budget. Many of the announcements were of housing building programmes, and at this stage I was expecting to see concrete being poured and hundreds of houses under way. That is not what we see. I have summed up the reams of paper on the back of a postage stamp, where I wrote out the housing programme. Over 2015 to 2017, over three years, there will be €312 million spent and 1,700 units built. Some 49 houses will be built in Laois, 57 in Kildare and 33 in Offaly. In County Kildare, almost 8,000 people are on the housing waiting list and almost 1,700 households are on the waiting list in Laois. I have summed up the programme on the back of a postage stamp. It is not nearly enough and I am concerned and disappointed. The Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Kelly, told the House about the massive house building programme. However, the reality is that the needs of 98% of the people on the housing waiting list are not being addressed and the house building programme that fits on the back of the postage stamp will only address the needs of 2% of the households on the waiting list. It is far too little too late. In Dublin, in the middle of the crisis, 183 houses were built in 2013. In three years from 2015 to 2017, the Labour Party and Fine Gael proposed building 167 houses over three years. This is the answer to the housing crisis. It is not of enough and I want to know what other measures will be put in place to address the crisis.

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