Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister State for his reply. This is the first time we have seen these proposals and strategies and reference to the clearing house group. We are open to a real and genuine discussion rather than simply eight minutes during Topical Issue matters today. I would welcome it if the Minister of State brought all these proposals to the Dáil and contacted the Irish League of Credit Unions quickly. Changes will have to be made in respect of registering, and the credit union guidance notes would have to be amended to allow this to happen. We need to move quickly on the matter.

I meet one or two families every week who face eviction through no fault of their own and subsequently find themselves homeless. If they thought we were sitting on money like this rather than urgently using it to build social housing, we would have to be ashamed of ourselves and those in the Government would have to be ashamed of themselves too. I would welcome a proper debate on all the proposals the Minister of State has put forward. That should include exactly how much social housing we can build and how quickly we can build the units in all the areas where they are needed.

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