Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Is the reality that it is because of the policies of successive Governments the Minister's party and, in particular, Fianna Fáil, have led since the late 1980s that the professional memory of excellence in all aspects of housing construction and planning has been lost by local authorities? Does the Minister not have a clear responsibility to ensure that such professional excellence is brought back? Should he be asking the authorities to take up a much stronger role?

If we want to increase housing supply, we must get the local authorities involved. It must be remembered that in the city in which the Minister is sitting and in his own city, some of the best estates - estates which have developed well over the decades - were built by local authorities. Like many in this Chamber, I grew up in a county council house. The Minister and his predecessors have allowed that resource to be lost. The results, of course, are the dismal figures - all zero - for housing production on the part of the four Dublin local authorities, year in and year out. Only the other day I looked at the Dublin City Council direct construction programme to 2020. It is a dismal programme of approximately 800 units for the entire city and is part of the Minister's overall programme. In my constituency, it amounts to the building of a few dozen units each year. We have tens of thousands of people desperately seeking accommodation.

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