Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I too am glad to speak on the housing and rental crises again. Nothing has been discussed more than this topic since I was elected to this House. It was mentioned in the programmes for Government day after day and even before I came up here it was discussed in Kerry County Council. So much has been said, but words are not enough because words will not build houses. These Bills will not build the houses either, but certain things need to be done.

I disagree with Deputy Mattie McGrath when he stated that the local authorities had lost their way in house building. The Taoiseach also said that and I got very cross with him that day because that is not true. How could the local authorities build houses when they did not have any funds to build them? There was mention of 30 houses being built in Tipperary last year. In terms of social housing, three rural cottages were built in County Kerry in the past seven years. That is a fact. It is the Gospel truth and nothing but the truth and it is a shame and a disgrace given the number of people on the housing list.

We were promised €62.5 million at the start of 2015 to address the housing crisis in Kerry but, as of yet, not one social house has been built. There are only a few days left in 2016 and I know that no houses will be built before the end of the year. However, 22 houses are to be built in Killarney. They went out for tender during the summer, but they have been put out for tender again. As a result of the restrictions the Department has imposed, no official in Kerry County Council would sign off on the tenders that came in and this now has to be put out for tender again. It only went out the other day. I worry about whether these houses will be built in 2017. I hope they are but I am not so sure.

Private builders are not building houses. The only houses that are currently being built in County Kerry are one-off houses that are being built by farmers' sons, etc. A few houses are being built by local people who have enough money to build a house but others cannot get money from the banks.

7 o’clock

The developers and builders will tell us this. As Deputy Mattie McGrath stated, rogue builders were blamed for the crash but many good builders also went down in the crash. I am sorry for them because they provided valuable housing units and a good service. They cannot dream of starting business again because they will not get finance from the banks. While other lending institutions from outside the country will lend to them, they will do so at interest rates of 10% and 12%. The average cost of a house in County Kerry is not €400,000, €500,000 or €600,000 but between €210,000 and €220,000. If builders paid an interest rate of 10%, their profit from building a house would be €4,000 or €5,000. Who would take on such a responsibility, especially given all the regulations builders must adhere to and the requirement to have the key turned in the door before they would be paid?

Staged payments, which was how builders used to be paid, have been ruled out, which is also wrong. An authority should be responsible for checking that a project is progressing and the works are being done to a satisfactory standard. If problems are identified at the final stage, the final payment could be delayed. Small builders and developers cannot start building because of the regulations in place. The regulatory side is not working.

I will refer to a case I highlighted previously involving a young farmer who wanted to borrow €100,000 from a bank to build a house. He, his brothers and other relatives were in a position to do much of the work themselves. Lo and behold, the bank insisted that he borrow €180,000, even though his income ruled him out of accessing a loan of that size. He is now at a standstill.

Other problems have occurred on a long stretch of the N72 approaching Killarney. Four families who had enough money to build new houses received planning permission from Kerry County Council and the council's road engineers passed their plans for road access. Everything was fine but, lo and behold, in 2012, the then Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Leo Varadkar, insisted that access to national secondary roads would no longer be approved. County Kerry has more miles of national secondary road that any other county. I have asked that this impediment be removed and I ask the Minister of State, Deputy Seán Canney, to address the issue because the road in question is as straight as the barrel of a gun for 400 yd. in either direction. There is no way the four families in question will be granted planning permission. They will not be allowed to build in their own place but are supposed to move into Killarney, which is overcrowded and has no housing available.

Deputies are being contacted by many people who are having their homes taken from them. Why can the banks not do a deal with the local authorities to allow these people to lease their homes and become council tenants? They could then purchase their homes when they get up and running. Surely it would be easy to introduce such a mechanism given that the State has a large stakeholding in the banks.

The Minister referred to the introduction of temporary, fast-track planning arrangements. Why are the arrangements temporary? Why does the Minister not propose to keep them in place once they are up and running? At the current rate, we will not build enough houses in the next 20 years. Why is the word "temporary" used to describe these arrangements?

The Minister also stated that applications would be submitted to An Bord Pleanála. As all Deputies know, An Bord Pleanála does not make decisions on planning applications for at least six months. The organisation should be directed to respond within a quicker timeframe than six months.

Reference was made to the introduction of new screening arrangements for the conduct of environmental impact assessments to streamline the process of determining planning for the consent for and subsequent undertaking of works, including emergency flood relief works, to be carried out by the Office of Public Works. This is fine in cases where the OPW is responsible for the rivers. In County Kerry, however, the OPW refuses to assume responsibility for even a fraction of the rivers or waterways. In fairness to the Minister of State, Deputy Seán Canney, I am grateful to him for what he has tried to do for the county.

One authority must deal with flooding problems. Inland Fisheries Ireland has a say in this matter, which means people are threatened with the Garda, jail or the loss of farm payments if they go near a river. Our rivers are clogged up and blocked for this reason. When rivers cannot flow they flood houses and roads. We have heard a ridiculous proposal from the OPW to create flood plains and build walls to hold back waters. This is not the answer, which has always been to clean out the rivers and allow the waters to flow. Time is slipping by and we will soon be into a new year. Next year will go just as quickly or maybe even quicker than this year. If something is not done to have one authority deal with rivers and flooding, we will be back to square one.

The Minister is a hard-working man who does his level best. I give him that but he will have to get stuck into the Department that is responsible for the restrictions that are preventing local authorities from building houses because, as hard as he tries, his reputation is on the line.

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