Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The issue I raise concerns whether the Minister has completed collating the data for the landbanks available for housing and what plans are in place for funding housing provision on same. Is the Minister aware that there are almost 4,000 people on the housing waiting list in County Louth? Many of them have been waiting more than nine years to be housed. The situation in County Louth is shocking, and given the scale of the housing crisis I am sure that is replicated right across the State. The number of applicants on the housing waiting lists exceeds the entire supply of council-owned housing stock in County Louth. That is a shocking statistic to bring to the attention of the House. Three generations of families live under one roof in overcrowded conditions. There are no affordable properties and there is a chronic shortage of private rental accommodation, and such accommodation that is available is not affordable for most. Where rental accommodation is available, landlords refuse to take tenants in receipt of the housing assistance payment. Meanwhile, there are 54 acres of council-zoned landbanks throughout the county. In the case of Louth County Council, it must pay €3 million a year in interest only for the loans on the landbanks. The €3 million comes out of the local authority's own budget so citizens are deprived of vital services and amenities because the council must pay such an amount in interest on the landbanks. Meanwhile, the land lies idle and barren as not a single house has yet been built.

Last July, the Minister launched his Rebuilding Ireland document, yet several months later in November, when I asked him about council-zoned landbanks and landbanks belonging to local authorities, he said he had not collated any data. It surprised me that in the middle of a housing crisis one of the first ports of call would not be to ascertain what land belonged to local authorities across the State on which one could roll out a proper social housing provision programme. The Minister had not even bothered to collect the data. That adds weight to the criticism of the Minister and the Government that the Government's response to the housing crisis is developer led and developer driven. The landbanks in County Louth consist of almost 54 acres. They are in Mullavalley in Louth village, Kilkerley, Ballymakenny Road in Drogheda, Mount Avenue and Point Road in Dundalk and Newtown Meadows in Drogheda.

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There are over 20 acres of those 53 acres of land in Drogheda and not a single house has been built. What plans does the Minister have? Why is he, point blank, refusing to give funding for the roll-out of a social housing building programme on these lands I have identified?

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