Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Acting Chairman for allowing me the opportunity to say a few brief words about this legislation and, perhaps, to bring a different perspective to it. It largely looks at urban-based issues, but the housing crisis is the same for a family which lives in Ballyhea as it is for one which lives in Ballincollig. Ballyhea is a smaller village at one end of my constituency, while Ballincollig is the biggest town in County Cork and at the other end of my constituency. For individual families it does not matter. There is a crisis everywhere from Malin Head to Mizen Head and all points in between. Legislation is important and will tackle some of the issues, but of itself is not the answer. I am glad to note the Government is committing substantial funds to address the housing crisis. I saw some research findings that stated that, despite building nearly 100,000 houses per year during the madness of the boom, we needed to build at least 25,000 a year just to catch up. It is a significant ask to get the construction industry up to that level of activity and the jobs that will come from it.

Is there not an enormous irony that while we have perhaps 100,000 families on social housing waiting lists or being dealt with through various social housing initiatives, there are various reports suggesting there are at least 200,000 vacant houses in the country, while a report of Deutsche Bank in 2012 suggested there were nearly 300,000. There is an enormous mismatch of resources and we really need to be able to think outside the box in how we can address it. The map of those vacant houses shows they are substantially in rural Ireland, many of them along the west coast. My guesstimate is that a lot of them are old housing stock on the streetscapes of towns and villages. We need a contract between the State and these communities, whereby we will commit, as a state, to reinvest in these villages by providing playgrounds, footpaths and ramps at low cost. The State, through social housing and local authority initiatives, might get involved in acquiring some of these houses and retrofitting them, insulating, rewiring and replumbing them to current standards. There is an enormous opportunity because there is great value in acquiring these houses at extremely affordable prices and using them to deal with the problem. We should insist on local authorities availing of 1,000 units per annum out of this enormous resource of vacant houses the length and breadth of the country. We should also see some relaxation of building standards as there is no point in acquiring these houses at affordable prices and then having to spend the equivalent cost of building a new council house to retrofit them. We have seen very good examples of what architects can do to redesign houses, but it should not be at the cost of the alternative, namely, building a new three bedroom house on the outskirts of the village and tearing the heart out of these communities.

We should also look at giving incentives to those who want to house themselves and would buy a house in Ballingeary, Ballyhea or Inchigeelagh if the State was to give them some incentive, in the form of a substantial grant, to refit it. We would bring life back to these villages. I was fortunate enough to go to school in Inchigeelagh, where my mother had a shop, and there was life in such villages. After school, children played on the streets, but now people cannot get out of villages fast enough when the school closes. They hightail it back to wherever they live. The challenge is to match the two resources, vacant houses with nearly 100,000 people on social housing waiting lists to solve the problem. The State needs to step up to the plate to put in place the infrastructure required, playgrounds, ramps and footpaths, in order that people can live safely and should then acquire these houses or incentivise the private sector to acquire them.

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