Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I will share time, four minutes, four minutes and two minutes, with Deputies Eamon Ryan and Seamus Healy. There is no doubt that this is the biggest emergency facing this country yet all we are doing is having a three-month review. Some of us flagged this issue several years ago. We said we should have been almost on a war footing then. The fact that we are still talking about this in 2017, with a deepening crisis, is unacceptable. We were constantly told there was no money but some of us pointed out that the European Investment Bank had available funding even when we were in the programme, though requiring us to be co-guarantor. We have been far too slow to leverage that funding. Had we taken up the option four or five years ago we would have some supply now.

We were told for years that this was a supply-side issue and that it would take time to resolve it. We will continue talking if we follow the mighty market, which so spectacularly failed and caused the crash. There is far too much emphasis on the market resolving the housing problem. We have to directly build social housing using the tier 3 housing associations, co-operative housing, etc.

I recently discovered that there were only four staff in the delivery unit of the Department. How do we expect to become effective in delivering houses with such a complement? Two years ago the Social Democrats called for the establishment of a national housing delivery agency, to tie in with the Housing Agency and the Housing Finance Agency to perform the function of project-managing large sites to give economies of scale and mixed tenure. I still believe that such a body is necessary because it will drive down the cost of building houses.

It is frustrating that the scale of the housing emergency continues to be denied. We are told there are 90,000 people on the waiting list but that is nonsense. There are 90,000 applications but they must be multiplied by three as they are not all single people. That gives 270,000 men, women and children on the waiting list. It is equal to the total population of five counties, Carlow, Longford, Sligo, Roscommon and Monaghan combined. We do not even count some people, such as those who could move out of direct provision but are stuck because they have nowhere to go.

The rental situation is still out of control. A three-bedroom semi-detached house in Lucan costs €2,200 per month. Why would it not drive wage inflation? When people argue with their landlords, even in a rent pressure zone, there is only one winner. Many are ignoring the 4% cap. We should have a fuller debate on this issue where we focus on solutions that are very obvious.

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