Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

That is what I am saying. It is like a sticking plaster. It is like when I got a puncture on the front wheel of my bicycle when I was going for a date one time. Perhaps the Minister has never cycled, but I have done so. I often carried someone home on the handlebars too, with no light on the bike. In any event, when I got the puncture to which I refer, there were six pin holes in the tube but I could only mend one. I got a flat wheel before I had gone far up the road.

The Bill is rubbish as far as I am concerned. We are looking in the wrong place. We must look at what is causing the crisis and at the local authorities. For decades, houses were built. They were built all through the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. For some reason, that activity was stopped dead in its tracks and a house has not been built since.

Deputy Thomas Byrne asked how long it would take for the tender that went out in Meath this morning to be done. That is only for the first phase of expressions of interest. It is for people to come and tell them what they can do. Then, those involved might look at the tender and meet the people. We do not have plenty of people available.

Builders can build if they get the money from the banks. I am referring to good builders, not the shady characters or tinted groups. I am referring to the real builders who want to build houses. They want to build for families and a small profit. They should not be demonised like the rest of them. There are many good landlords as well and they cannot be demonised either, like the many bad ones. We are not listening to Fr. Peter McVerry or any of my good and learned colleagues, such as Alice Leahy from Tipperary. We are not listening to any of the people who know the position. We are listening to officialdom, which has gone completely bonkers. We are passing legislation without any idea of the impact it will have. We are giving notice to the greedy landlords that this is going to happen. It was supposed to happen this week. It might not happen until next week. If they want, they can notify all their tenants and say they will increase the rent beforehand. The Minister said earlier that this does not apply retrospectively and that it cannot. We may as well put a message in the newspapers to landlords to the effect that they should put up the rents before this happens. It is a mockery. It is shameful as far as I am concerned. It is wasteful and useless. I mean that and I say it sincerely.

I listened to the female Deputy from Galway who is part of Independents4Change – her name eludes me. She was telling the truth. The truth is bitter but it must be listened to. I have seen it with legislation passed in the House without impact assessments being carried out.

Local authorities should be asked. The county managers have a fine association. They meet once a year. My manager is chairman of the group at present. The local authorities are doing nothing about the housing situation. There are directors of services for everything. There are six or seven in each county. When there was only a county manager, county engineer and area engineer, we ran the counties properly. We also had a housing engineer to build the houses.

How many stages must the local authority go through now to build five houses in my village if it wishes to build them? As it happens, it does not want to build. How many stages until it gets to the Department? I believe it is seven.

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