Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputies Seamus Kirk, Niall Collins, John Browne and Michael Fitzmaurice.

I wish to pick up on the final remarks of the Minister of State and the usual ráiméis that comes out. From 2007 to 2010, we built 14,581 new social housing units. This was an average of 107 units per local authority per year in that time. During the first three years in office of the current Government, from 2011 to 2014, 1,250 new units were built, representing an average of nine units per local authority per year. Therefore, the notion that we abandoned social housing, or abandoned the problem to the private market to solve, is wrong. It has been proven wrong but I suppose one has to keep hammering this home. We invested considerably in companies and agencies such as Clúid Housing and Respond!, companies and agencies that I heard the Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, take credit for on the radio this morning in his normal old, modest, shy way of doing things.

Clúid Housing has provided a new approach to social housing and shown local authorities how to provide social housing with decency, integrity and respect for tenants.

What the current housing crisis demonstrates is a complete failure of the permanent as opposed to the political Government. It highlights difficulties across every aspect of the permanent Government in responding to a crisis in any Department. Everything takes time and excuses are always offered. In the meantime, the housing waiting lists grow longer. In the eight years I have spent in the Dáil, housing has never been as big an issue in County Mayo as it is now.

While rent supplement may not be a solution in urban areas and cities, it is a solution in rural areas as it affords people an opportunity to move into a house they could not otherwise afford. Local authority houses are still boarded up because local authorities are not using the funding available to remove voids or refurbish local authority houses. This may also be the case in the constituency of the Minister of State, Deputy Ann Phelan. It is extraordinary how long it takes local authorities to refurbish social housing. They carry out refurbishment projects on one electoral area at a time. In the meantime, people on the housing waiting lists wonder why there are empty local authority houses.

Long-term local authority tenants who are unable to have basic repairs carried out on their homes become frustrated at the sight of local authority void houses, perhaps next door or in the same street, being refurbished to a high standard. This is occurring in County Mayo and it is exceptionally frustrating for those concerned. When public representatives make representations on the issue to Mayo County Council, we are informed that the Department will not provide funding for repairs. I do not accept that the fault lies with the Department. Such cases show that local authorities must show greater respect to their tenants. If some of the conditions in local authority housing were replicated in a private rented arrangement, a third party would intervene.

The housing crisis has reached a very serious point. That my party is using its final Private Members' slot in this Dáil to discuss the issue is an indication that Fianna Fáil takes the issue seriously. My colleague, Deputy Barry Cowen, has made many proposals for immediate action. I listened to the Minister argue that he could not magic away the problem. No one is arguing otherwise. However, in the past two years, the National Asset Management Agency has placed large property portfolios on the market and the Government has not intervened. The Minister stated today, in his homage on "Today with Sean O'Rourke", that it would be illegal for him to get involved in such matters. While that is correct, Ministers have intervened with NAMA in respect of tourism and community projects. If ever the social clause in the NAMA legislation should be invoked, surely the provision of housing is a more appropriate reason for doing so than tourism or economic and cultural development. A roof over someone's head is a basic requirement in a republic that is marking its centenary.

I will return to my point about the failure of government. One sees a large number of empty and boarded-up houses and a significant amount of space available above shops and business premises. With a little imagination and a relatively small amount of funding, these houses and spaces could be returned to use. The Minister of State, wearing her rural development hat, could produce some type of scheme to reinvigorate villages. As to the notion that people will not move to rural areas, if a proper offer were made and a little imagination were put into the design, people would choose to return to rural areas to revitalise schools, services and communities. It is ridiculous when one travels through villages that are dying on their feet to see large numbers of empty properties that could, with a little imagination and funding, be put to use to address the social housing waiting list.

One of the legacies of the Government will be that at a time when it was consistently preaching about recovery and an economic turnaround and spoke of major tax cuts, 1,500 families were in emergency accommodation. These families do not know where they will be this time next week. They are being discommoded for the want of a proper response and due to the lack of imagination and urgency that lies at the heart of the problem. That is an appalling legacy of government in Ireland in 2016.

If I may digress briefly, I am conscious that I am sharing my time with Deputies Seamus Kirk and John Browne. It appears that this may be the final sitting week of the Dáil. For this reason, I wish the Deputies and the Acting Chairman, Deputy Dinny McGinley, every health and happiness as they bow out of the House after many years of service. I extend special best wishes to Deputy John Browne who is an office neighbour of mine on the corridor. He claims he is not emotional about leaving the House but we know he is secretly emotional about it. The Deputies have given great service to the people at every level of government. We wish them health and happiness and every success in whatever role they choose to take up afterwards.

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