Derek Nolan (Galway West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Fianna Fáil for tabling this motion. It is appropriate that we discuss housing as often as possible, as it is an important issue that affects many in our communities, not least in my constituency of Galway West and, in particular, Galway city where a significant shortage of private and social housing is causing considerable problems.

In any discussion on how to address the issue of housing and what policies should be pursued, the first task is to change the discussion and classify housing not as something that should be provided on the whim of the market, speculators or developers, but as a social good that should not be treated as a commodity on the open market. When a state takes the approach of treating housing as a social need to which people are entitled regardless of their incomes or backgrounds, it automatically changes the policy remit under which the problem can be solved.

The housing crash, the bubble and the mess that was left behind for the rest of society to pick up stemmed from one of the greatest issues of recent decades, namely, the fact that land values were allowed to escalate. Land was hoarded, properties were built and extortionate prices were charged. Many young couples mortgaged themselves for 30 or 35 years to buy three-bedroom semi-detached houses in which to raise their families. If we accept this as the norm again and that it is just how the market is, we will have failed and learned nothing. I understand that people have problems with some of the Central Bank's decisions on mortgages and so forth. These decisions are not meant to curtail people from buying homes, but to curtail those who are selling people homes at extortionate prices because of the current market. This should be kept in mind.

Not a week goes by in which I do not meet family after family that has been 12, 13 or 14 years on social housing waiting lists. This is not on. It is a scandal. Just because we are in government does not mean we should shy away from using such words or claim that this situation is either acceptable or not happening. It is happening.

The solution is not just to build more houses. The situation is more nuanced than that. Yes, the most fundamental need is to build more social housing, but we must also build more private and affordable housing for families that do not need or qualify for social housing lists. In the 1960s, housing co-operatives got together on Ardilaun Road in Galway. The land was zoned for residential purposes and plots of land were set aside for people to buy at reasonable rates and build their own houses. Is there any simpler idea than the vast number of people who have enough resources to build moderate houses for themselves getting the moderate-cost sites on which to do so? Why not go down that route? We would be providing houses, increasing supply and giving small and medium-sized builders a chance to build homes and provide employment. No major capital investment from the State would be required except for zoning and the installation of the facilities, roads, pipes and so on that would service the areas.

What about saying that renting is not just something that one does between finishing university, an apprenticeship or the like and getting on the property ladder? Why not have renting as something that one can do for 20 or 30 years? Why not take a real look at rent control and different types of tenancy? What if people do not wish to buy because, for example, they had large houses when their children were young but now want to downsize? Why not have the options that other modern European countries seem to be able to provide? Why not accept the fact that, unless we get all of these facets in order and change our mindset towards housing, we will be stuck with this problem and discussing it because it will never be solved?

There is much that we can do. We must establish a land development agency, something akin to NAMA but one not involved in building, to examine these matters, to ensure we never allow people to hoard land again, to tackle speculation and to ensure local authorities plan in a correct manner in terms of where and how to build social houses and where to designate lands for rezoning for residential purposes. In this way, we would have a functioning and properly regulated housing sector that was not market or speculator driven, but driven by the social need of everyone in the State, regardless of background, to have a place to live and raise a family, a community to be part of and a society into which to contribute on the basis of his or her citizenship rather than on the basis of where the market dictates he or she should live or where some speculator decides to build a house.

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