John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thought the Department would have had all of the information being sought by the amendment, which appears to me to be reasonable enough. If the Department has all of the information, then rather than wait for the three months proposed in the amendment, the Minister should publish it.

I am particularly interested in the information the Minister has gathered from the local authorities. Earlier today, I raised the fact that there is land, some owned by the Health Service Executive and some by local authorities. I do not know what analysis was carried out relative to the availability of that land for housing. I question again the availability of houses, particularly in the Dublin area, from the banks which have boarded up houses which are no longer occupied. They are also available. This takes us back to providing a comprehensive supply of houses by bringing all of these houses into play, bringing an agency into play in terms of the other repossessions which will take place in the course of 2017 and by bringing those houses into public ownership. I do not see anything wrong with that.

The reaction of those occupying the building in question is out of frustration and anger at the political system because it has not delivered. One can say what one likes and disagree with them for occupying the building.

One has to understand the frustration that not only they but others all over the country are experiencing because they see houses boarded up and inactivity from the county councils. They do not see any of the CEOs or county managers, as they were, being held to account. This morning, the Minister heard Deputy McGrath make the very same point. They are the housing authority. If one goes to any county council and looks at the staff levels in terms of the delivery of houses, they are no longer involved in refuse collection but there were no staff reductions. Irish Water is now there and there are still no staff reductions. They have a housing brief that they are not capable of fulfilling for some reason or other. We have to find out why. It is not all to do with planning. It has to do with a sensible approach to providing houses in the locations where they are most needed. They are mainly in the urban areas. Others want to live in their own community in rural Ireland. There is no response from the council. If one goes to the council and listens to any of the debates, they are so caught up in bureaucratic processes they have lost sight of the reason why they are there, which is to serve the people and deliver houses. One then has the farcical situation where houses that have been occupied by local authority tenants become vacant for some reason and are boarded up. That is why people are now beginning to react the way the group referred to has reacted. It is a result of the frustration and anger about the system not delivering to them. The Minister needs to address that. We need to address why the county councils, which are the housing authorities, are simply not able, for some reason, to deliver on the housing needs of their own county. It cannot be staff levels. The central question is why for the past ten years when this was a growing problem they did not act on it. Why did they not begin to buy land and houses and begin to house people on the housing list? There are some 120,000 on that list. There are 3,500 in Kilkenny. If one was to look at how that list is being massaged in terms of HAP, rent allowance or RAS, one has to add those people back in because currently they are being housed in rented properties, which is not secure. The Minister has to insist that county managers look at why HSE lands are not being used and why they have buildings with three and four floors where only one floor is used. Why is it that the other floors are not used? Why is it they cannot access the Minister's money to build or refurbish those buildings to house people? I made the point this morning that the mortgage-to-rent scheme is not working because of bureaucracy. That is why it is not working. It is frustrating people. The last thing I will say on the building is that, legal or not, no one should be deprived of heat or water during this time.

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