Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

While information may be available to the Minister and in local authorities regarding the delays in delivering the housing supply that is needed, the point here is that such information is not being collated in a way that clarifies the debate we are having with the Minister about what exactly is causing those delays. The thrust of the Bill before the House is to suggest that proper public consultation and proper planning processes are somehow hampering the delivery of housing, particularly affordable housing. I do not accept that this is the case.

The Apollo House action demonstrations, rightly, and points to the fact of the failure of the State to use its resources directly via NAMA as well as other resources to deliver what the market is not delivering. In fact, the market is obstructing the delivery of the alternative.

I went down to Apollo House today simply to offer support and not out of some desire to politicise something. The activists there asked me to take some of the T-shirts and publicise the takeover and urge public support. The plumbers happened to be there and they said they had gone in. As I understand it, there is no difficulty with the electricity; the problem is the heat and water. They need to be addressed. Plumbers were there and ready to work. A security man there said he represented the private owners. I am unsure of the exact situation. I was informed by the representatives at the building that NAMA and, somehow, BNP Paribas are involved. A private security man is there inhibiting plumbers from getting in to provide the hot water and heating that is necessary. They are not suggesting this as a substitute for the emergency accommodation that the Government or the Dublin Region Homeless Executive are providing. They maintain it is an excess for those who have nowhere to go.

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