Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill, although I would prefer to be addressing the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, rather than the Minister of State, Deputy Coffey, on the crisis in housing. We are only tinkering at the edges of the crisis with this Bill, which we are ramming through at this hour of the night. It is like a fellow getting a blow-out and having someone come along with a bicycle pump to inflate the tyre. It is nonsense.

I commend the Minister of State on his work as a councillor over the years. However, his colleague, the Minister, arrived from on high and is still on high. He is slowly coming down to the ground but he will crash one of these days. It is clear that he does not know the first thing about how county councils operate or the different bits and pieces of local authorities. He arrived in Clonmel recently in the company of the good Minister of State, Deputy Coffey. He did not tell the chairman of the county council or the mayor of the town that he was announcing €3.8 million for housing in Tipperary. It was manna from Alan the superman. The county council is still waiting to get in writing the amount of money being provided. It is all spin. From the time that man gets up in the morning until he goes to bed at night, he is in a spin but he will fly off the spinning top one of these days because he will be found out. That is the fact of the matter. I was surprised that he brought the Minister of State, Deputy Coffey, along to drub him into it. The Minister of State has a proud record that stands much better than the Minister's.

The Minister stated that the Government published a comprehensive Construction 2020 strategy for a renewed construction sector. The strategy is supposed to encompass 75 specific actions. If somebody does not want to do something, he or she will announce 75 specific actions. Five actions would have been enough but, of course, this is a case of confuse, mix up and make up. The Minister will not have written down the 75 actions before he gets thrown out of Government in the next election, never mind implement them.

That is the kind of poppycock we are getting from this Minister. We thought the last one was bad, but come back Big Phil, all is forgiven. Look what he left us, in the name of God.

I know of good building and construction companies that operated Part V and it was successful. Cutting the social and affordable housing provision from 20% to 10% is a non-runner and is stupid. I know who sought that reduction. It was the big business people in the Construction Federation of Ireland and NAMA, which is another acronym but we know where their interests are. When NAMA was established I said it was like a wild animal in the woods and no one knew where it would end up. We now know where it has ended up, with property portfolios in every town and village with weeds growing out of them. It has caused anguish, pain and trauma for many people, but is a gravy train for developers who are the chosen ones. They are picked to work with NAMA and are paid handsomely. They are getting side deals and cushy deals, which is nothing short of an outrage.

There is no point in doing anything here if we do not deal with rent control, so the Minister of State should also be working with the Department of Social Protection in this regard.

The 3% levy on vacant sites will not be paid until 2019, but God knows where the Minister, Deputy Kelly, will be at that stage. He certainly will not be in this Parliament anyway. We will be waiting until 2019, which is such a flippant way of dealing with people. I hope the Minister of State, Deputy Coffey, will be around because he is a practical man, but the Minister, Deputy Kelly, will certainly not be here. We may as well be talking to Mars in 2019 and that is the sad fact of it.

There is plenty of legislation involving local authorities, including that for dealing with derelict sites. Local authorities can be proactive in dealing with such sites in rural towns and villages. There are derelict sites in my county and every other county, but local authorities should be proactive in that regard. They should be supported by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government but they are not getting a cent to regenerate these places and get businesses reopened. Rent reliefs and other schemes are required to support struggling businesses.

The Government got it in the teeth this week when it was boasting about the economy. We are tired of reports saying the economy is booming, while under the Government's nose came a bolt from the blue when Clerys, a long-established business, went belly-up. As the Minister of State knows, other businesses are hanging on by their fingernails in Portlaw, Dungarvan and Tramore. I know it is happening in other counties and anyone here who is honest also knows it. Businesses are hanging on but they cannot continue to do so because banks are not giving them a shilling. Meanwhile, they are trying to compete with NAMA-run properties, including hotels, which are running at below cost price. It is not a fair trading pitch therefore.

The Bill considers 75 specific actions but ignores the elephant in the room, which is NAMA. It is much bigger than an elephant now and one cannot even get up on it. What is NAMA? It is something that is out of control. The Minister could deal with this practically in many ways if he wanted to. However, this legislation was stuck in because there is an election coming up and perhaps the Labour Party was prodding the Minister to make it look good, as if he was interested and might do something.

I welcome the Bill's provision for a review of development charges which are very high in many counties. If there is to be a downward review, I would welcome it if it is retrospective for those who have obtained planning permission.

I want to talk about rural regeneration and the voluntary housing sector. The Minister, Deputy Kelly, made a pure bags of this as well. He announced a review of the legislation that was passed here last year, despite us all appealing that no one should pass it. The architects wanted it of course. With one stroke of a pen, he put an extra charge of €1,600 or €2,000 on people building their own houses in the country. It was voted through the lobbies but when the Minister, Deputy Kelly, took over the reins he got up on his horse and stopped the pony. He said he would have a review of this and change it because it was unacceptable.

Five people in my own area have planning and builders and designers waiting to go but they are waiting for Alan the great, Alan the mighty.

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