Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the debate on housing, which is undoubtedly a topic of considerable significance and importance to many. It is, rightly, dominating much of the discourse of politics and society as a whole at this time. Housing is always going to be a challenge for a county that has endured the trauma ours has been through in the past ten to 15 years. We went from hero to zero over that time in terms of the number of houses being built and supplied. We must acknowledge the progress the Government has made and its commitment to this issue in the Social Housing Strategy 2020. What is key in that is not just building houses, which is the topic of the debate all the time, but building communities. We must keep our language in check in that regard because ultimately this is about people who want to live in communities and not just houses in general.

While the Government has committed a very significant contribution of €3.8 billion to dealing with this issue, it is sometimes missed that a significant part of the solution to housing lies at local government level. This is not to pass the blame, but if we are to have a real and detailed conversation on the solutions for housing, the steps taken as the local authorities prepare plans must be discussed because supply is key. It is the biggest challenge facing the housing sector. One can pump in all the money one wants, but if houses are not being built, they are not there.

I put a proposal forward to the Department two years ago in September 2014 to urge the local authorities to take a more proactive approach to dealing with the challenges presenting in relation to housing. One of the options I outlined in that proposal was that local authorities would zone land that would be affordable housing land and put a cap on house prices. I maintain that is a very sensible solution which would have to come from local authorities zoning designated land at affordable rates and putting caps in place. Prices could be agreed by an independent body by reference to the geographies of the different areas. For example, houses would not be allowed to be sold at a price above, say, €200,000 in a town like Clonakilty. One would be surprised but developers can make that work. Developers and private industry will have to be part of the solution and major contributors in dealing with the problems we face. I hope the local authorities will play their part in being creative as they prepare local area plans and see the opportunities presenting to deal with this issue and supply.

I disagree with some of the previous speakers in respect of the HAP scheme. It has been very successful for many people and should not be underestimated. This year, approximately 10,000 households will be accommodated through the housing assistance payment scheme. These figures are not insignificant by any means. Any examples I have encountered of people dealing with HAP have been very positive. We must praise every bridge as we pass it and, as such, I note that people have found the system to be much easier to navigate in terms of form filling and so on. It has been very constructive. It allows people to keep their full-time employment and, through it, local authorities deal directly with landlords on their behalf. Those are all positives.

One other point that may be lost is that Part V was very successful, albeit it belongs to a different era when we were building houses at every crossroads. I was often minded that we did not build schools but had an major obsession with building houses at every crossroads. Part V was a good idea in that 20% of houses were to be applied so that one would have a good mix of social housing and private market housing side by side. One sees many estates where that has been very successful. That is something we should not lose sight of in the debate.

See this speech in context