Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I warmly welcome the debate and I will be strongly supporting the motion. What I want most to happen as a result of this debate is for action to be taken to address the housing crisis. For years we have seen under-investment in social housing. We also have seen the reality that 5,000 people State-wide are living in emergency accommodation, with an estimated 2,298 people living in emergency accommodation in Dublin, 1,275 of whom are children, and an estimated 80 plus families present to the Dublin Region Homeless Executive on a monthly basis. This is the reality of what is happening an the ground. We also have the situation of those who are homeless. The number of homeless people sleeping rough has doubled. The fourth aspect to this debate is the fact that families who are renting are being turfed out of the houses they are in because the landlords want to get them out or want to sell their houses.

I ask the Minister to examine the proposals in this motion. He needs to review Part VIII of the Planning and Development Act 2000, with a view to amending legislation temporally in order to provide social housing in a more timely manner. Second, he needs to increase the direct funding to local authorities to commence a long-term plan of social housing expansion. Third, he needs to provide the legislative framework for local authorities to be able to access Housing Finance Agency loans off balance sheet. These are very important issues.

Another important issue that is often ignored is the fact that Dublin is full of empty plots and sites. NAMA is creating a hyped up market in land. This excludes the developers or builders and rewards the speculators. A "use it or lose it" tax could be introduced to force the speculators to sell to the developers. Also, a tax on land hoarding would bring down the price of land. Those are some proposals in this area, and the Minister should have a look at them and get on with the job.

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