Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Conor Skehan from the Housing Agency made an excellent contribution. I was referring to the first speaker who was definitely a representative of the Department.

Unless we reverse the chronic lack of provision of social housing through direct build housing, we will not deliver sufficient housing to meet the country's needs. Housing construction ceased under the Fianna Fáil Governments that preceded the previous Government. We must reverse that position. We have tabled motions, although I accept that we cannot yet discuss them. We must ensure the European Union's fiscal rules are relaxed to allow us to address the crisis by accessing emergency funds for social housing.

Deputy Mick Wallace will speak later about the constructive proposals made by Mr. Justice Honohan on the creative use of compulsory purchase orders with the investment fund and National Asset Management Agency properties.

I propose to speak briefly about modular housing. Local authorities in Dublin are subjecting to emotional blackmail the most hard-pressed working class communities which are being led to believe they are responsible for the housing and homelessness crisis. Fingal County Council is voting on the location of 40 so-called modular houses in Balbriggan. These housing units are not modular but conventional and while there is nothing wrong with them per se, I note that the company developing similar units in Ballymun was responsible for building rapid build accommodation in a school in north County Dublin that subsequently caught fire. This causes me some concern. My main concern, however, is the information we received yesterday that the units in Balbriggan would cost €243,000 each. This figure excludes site purchase costs, planning application costs, development levies and the developer's profit. Deputy Mick Wallace assures me that one could build a top-notch house under similar conditions for €150,000 or almost €100,000 less than the proposed cost of the Balbriggan units.

My colleague on Fingal County Council, Councillor Barry Martin, carried out a survey of properties available on the market in Balbriggan today. He found that 40 completed properties dispersed around the town could be purchased for €5.3 million, a much lower figure than the €9 million Fingal County Council is proposing to spend on the new development. The new development will be located in Pinewood estate where the hard-pressed, working class community has grappled for years with anti-social behaviour and, having overcome the problem, now lives in a mature and settled estate. Many residents have children on the housing waiting list and fully realise the scale of the housing problem. They wonder, however, why the so-called modular housing developments are being located in the most marginalised working class communities. They also ask why agreements reached with their community have been trampled on as a result of these proposals which do not make economic sense. Moreover, they will establish a transient community which will not be able to integrate with the existing community and the cost of doing so will be significantly higher than other options. If the knee-jerk reaction to the national emergency continues, we will sow the seeds for major problems in the future. The proposal is not acceptable to any of those affected by the current crisis.

I am pleased that we have today agreed to establish a committee on housing and I hope it will produce concrete proposals. Deputy Catherine Connolly made the speech of the day and summed up the position very articulately, pointing out that we did not have a housing strategy and that developing one must be the utmost priority of all Deputies.

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