Derek Nolan (Galway West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It seems the effects of the property bubble continue to impact on our society and our citizens to such an extent that here we are eight years after the crash still trying to pick up the pieces of a dysfunctional and destroyed housing market. There is a shortage of private housing across Galway county, and in the city in particular. We never overbuilt in Galway and never had those vast ghost estates they had elsewhere. As soon as economic activity picked up, the houses that were available were snapped up. Now, one can have up to 25 people viewing a house to let any one morning. People with regular jobs want to get on the property ladder and to raise a family. Instead of being able to buy a house, they have to stay in their private rented accommodation for dear life while rents go up, because the price of a three-bed semi-detached in Galway has gone from €180,000 three years ago to €230,000, a significant increase.

The last Government, while destroying the economy and collapsing the housing market, decided not to build any more social housing. We are now finally seeing some investment in that area, albeit not at the pace or the numbers we would like. Getting it all back up and running is taking so long that we need to be cognisant that when we are putting in place the infrastructure for the future housing market we do not put back in place that which got us into the problem in the first place. To do that, we need to ensure the Government and society views housing not as a market commodity that goes up and down based on supply and demand but as a sector that is actually regulated with a cap on land prices. We must make sure land is not used to hold entire cities and counties over a barrel to get the highest price, allowing somebody become a multimillionaire overnight for selling a site while families work for 30 years to pay off a mortgage. We need to move towards a housing model that is socially sustainable and for the citizens.

In Galway city, we are facing many problems. The measures introduced to calm down the rental market and to give greater certainty to tenants will fix that. However, that is just a stopgap measure which will not fix the problem until we get private housing built properly at an affordable price. It will not be fixed until we get social housing built for those who will never be able to own their own property because of their ability or their means of payment. Until we get that right, we will be in a serious situation that will not allow us to give people the certainty of tenure they need, the home they need to raise a family, as well as a decent level of living quality. In Galway, we need to get the funding for social housing for the Knocknacarra area and builders back building. We need to stop them from sitting on sites, so they can get unrealistic prices like in the crazy times. We must realise that housing is important and a social commodity, not something to be handed back to the speculators as the economy improves.

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