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

The Minister of State has given the impression that huge money is there for voids, empty council houses. Turning around empty council houses is welcome but in County Laois there are not three voids at the moment. That will not solve the housing crisis. New builds are needed. We are directly addressing the local authority house building programme for the next three years. The busiest industry since the last budget has been the offices of the Minister of State and the Minister, churning out press releases and papers, which I have summarised on the back of this postage stamp. The Taoiseach's house-building programme fits on the back of a stamp. It is 1,700 units over three years. That is the reality when one strips away the billions. What is happening here is that the money the Minister of State is announcing has been taken from the Department of Social Protection. He has brought it over to the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government and called it housing assistance payment, HAP, which some people are calling "hapless". That is how he is calculating his billions. He is not dealing with the housing crisis. There is a serious housing crisis out there. There are homeless people in Laois, Offaly and Kildare and there are 1,000 children in temporary accommodation at the moment-----

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