Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

-----idle because of the inability of the Minister to take a broad holistic view to tackling the housing issue? There was a proposal put to the Minister, with which Deputy Ellis and I are very familiar, on the question of the financial contribution scheme. It is an excellent scheme that has been used widely in north-west Dublin over the years in respect, for example, of cases where there is one person or an elderly couple living in a three-bedroom or four-bedroom house which they can no longer manage. We operated the financial contribution scheme very successfully for years whereby we offered people the opportunity to move into new senior citizen units and, in exchange, they sold their houses to the council. That was an extremely successful, popular and sustainable scheme because it meant that older people got good quality, secure, insulated, safe accommodation and, in return, the council got three-bedroom and four bedroom houses, not all together in new estates put pepper-potted around former council estates. It made for a very sustainable housing policy and yet the Minister refused to fund that scheme. That is what we should be doing. It is a much more creative and sustainable approach to providing housing, particularly in the Dublin area. There has been utter failure in this regard. This year, what we are seeing in terms of Government policy can only be described as insane. Government housing policy, as displayed in both the budget and by the Minister in this legislation, can only be described as insane. We have a major problem with housing affordability and this is causing huge pressure for families. It is also putting massive pressure on wages and contributing to our lack of competitiveness. It is causing significant economic problems in this country.

The Minister's response to the lack of affordability of housing has been twofold. The first aspect of that response came in the budget when his colleague, the Minister for Finance, took steps to specifically increase the cost of housing. By his own admission, he introduced the first-time buyer's grant in order to increase the cost of housing. The measures the Minister, Deputy Coveney, is introducing in this legislation are designed to increase the cost of rent. The country has a major problem with the lack of affordability in housing, whether in house purchases or house renting.

What the Government is doing will increase the cost of houses and rent, yet the Minister is making out that it will improve the situation and increase supply. There is no logic to it. It is an insane policy.

I listened very carefully to what the Minister said on "Morning Ireland" this morning. I wonder if his colleagues in Fianna Fáil did the same. He did not make a whole lot of sense. Earlier, a comment was made that we had not seen the co-sponsor of the Bill, Deputy Barry Cowen, since the debate started.

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