Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to hear it. I will not waste my few minutes but the Minister might clarify it. I am not in the habit of misleading people. One of my faults is that I am too blunt and direct. At the risk of using my time, I repeat that not one social house has been built in Galway since 2009. This year, there is a proposal to go ahead with 14 houses. I checked the news today and the local independent councillor who was formerly a Progressive Democrats councillor expressed concern that those houses will not even be finished in 2018. This is in the middle of a housing crisis. I do not mean to be personal but something is seriously wrong somewhere with the Minister's, the Department's or the city council management's grasp. Having raised it repeatedly, I ask the Minister to take a hands-on approach and clarify to this House what money has been made available to directly build public housing in Galway. If they have not been built, he should tell us why. I ask him to stop using the term "social house" when he gives money to private landlords through the housing assistance payment.

This Bill is addressing the in-built insecurity of tenure, which is an obscenity 100 years after 1916. Michael Davitt died in 1906 and we are back again looking for security of tenure while the Minister shakes his head. Shaking one's head is not a response to a crisis. Could the Minister take on board what is being said and give an undertaking to come back in respect of Galway city separately? I see some problems with the Bill and have some fundamental problems with one or two sections. I fully agree with the long notice period and the provisions relating to receivers. I will support it proceeding to Second Stage. I do have fundamental problems with it but I see where it is coming from.

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