Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As with most speakers today, I very much welcome the Bill. It has taken 15 years to change a provision introduced in 2000 by a Meathman. Being from Kildare, I had no respect for the Meathman because he introduced legislation that was a knee-jerk reaction to a housing crisis at the time. In 2000 and before then, an insufficient number of social houses were being built. Houses were not being made as affordable as possible for ordinary people. The individual introduced a provision whereby 20% of houses in a scheme had to be social and affordable. He basically handed over the construction of social housing to the private developers, and we have seen the result in the past 15 years. When the private developers went bust and pulled out of this country, there were no social houses built. Virtually no houses have been built in this country for the past five years, and that is why we are in - excuse the expression - the shit we are in at the moment. Owing to what was put in by-----

See this speech in context