Niall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is most disingenuous of the Labour Party to try to blame Fianna Fáil for the lack of provision of adequate social housing. The record speaks for itself.

We have to be honest about the supply of housing. Supply has been limited because of the Government policy of nurturing two pillar banks to provide funding to the construction industry. This has limited the ability of the construction industry to build new housing units. That is the policy of this Government. It has nurtured two pillar banks but, in turn, they have not provided adequate finance to the private construction industry to build housing. Hence, we have a limit in the supply of housing units throughout the country.

It has been pointed out on many occasions in this House that the Government has failed to provide adequate social housing units. The Government tells us that NAMA will provide 20,000 units over the coming years, with 2,000 of this allocation being social houses, in other words, 10%. Why does the Government not go for a 50-50 split in recognition of the fact that we have a national housing crisis? The 2,000 units that NAMA is looking at will not even address the needs of the 5,000 people on the housing list in Limerick alone. That is something the Government needs to take on board.

There is a problem with local authorities and voids. We are all out canvassing because of the imminent general election. The turnaround time is far too long. Under the system the Government has in place, for each void house the local authority has to make a separate application for the funding to turn it around. It is simply crazy.

Another issue has arisen during our canvassing and we can see it clearly. It relates to houses in private ownership. The local authorities should be targeting the empty and void houses in private ownership. They should try to find out who the owners are and they should then go after them to see whether they would be willing to enter into leasing arrangements. Placing a notice in the local authority section of the newspaper or including a footer in an e-mail indicating local authority interest in housing units is not enough. They need to go after them actively. The proposal from the Fianna Fáil Party to speed up the turnaround of void houses should be taken on board.

If a tenant is allocated a house which needs some degree of refurbishment, he or she should be allowed to do it himself or herself, within agreed parameters. That cost should be offset against the rent owed to the local authority until such time as it is recouped.

The various housing agencies, including Clúid, Focus Ireland and the Mid-West Simon Community, are doing great work in my part of the country. Great credit is due to them. However, in the main they are not a substitute for the role of the local authority in building and providing houses, although that seems to be the Government policy.

To date, no one else has referred to the staff dealing with homelessness in the local authorities. In particular, those in Limerick city and county councils deserve favourable mention. They deal with people on a very humane, responsible and compassionate basis and I want to acknowledge their work in that regard. I also wish to mention the estate management staff. We have had issues over the years in local authority estates. However, to their great credit, they have dug in and reorganised many of the local authority estates throughout Limerick city and county. They are now vastly improved parts of our community and we should give them due recognition in that regard.

In excess of 5,300 people are on the list in Limerick. The Government response has been so poor that it has failed abysmally to deal with the issue. In total, the Government is going to deal with only 1.28% of the problem of the provision of housing. That speaks volumes and it needs to be addressed.

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