Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I do not disagree for one minute with the suggestion that the last Government made a hames of Part V. However, Part V was not a substitute for the construction of housing by local authorities. Under Part V fewer than 5,000 social housing units were delivered in 15 years. It was a non-entity. The Government is relying on the approved housing agencies and the rent supplement scheme.

On the philosophy of local authorities, I remind the Minister of State who has said the local authorities stopped building houses that this happened because central government stopped giving them the money to build them. Central government needs to fund local authorities in order that they can start building again. There are 3,600 people on the social housing waiting list in County Wexford. Fewer than 100 of the 760 houses to will be supplied in the next five years will be built by the council. Local authorities will still not build social housing. I insist that the housing crisis will continue until the Government changes its philosophy and decides to build social housing through the local authorities from scratch. It will not be done overnight, but it has to be started.

See this speech in context