Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I do not blame the Minister for this crisis which is not of his making but it is his position to find the solutions to the problem we have. The one thing our parents, our grandparents and our great grandparents wanted was a home to call their own without being strangled by a mortgage or exorbitant rent. What we want for our children and grandchildren is that they will have homes which will be affordable.

I am asking that local authorities be put in the correct position on this. I very much appreciate the work of Kerry County Council, for example. The people who work in its housing department, whether in the homeless unit, the people in management or the girls at the reception in the housing department, are doing their best with the resources they have but I am asking the Minister to increase the resources. Please start building houses. Start building single rural cottages. Start acquiring affordable houses and making them local authority homes and giving them to local authority applicants who are waiting for years for housing. The Minister knows I appreciate his efforts. I am not a critical person, I am a positive person who will support good work where I see it being done but I ask him to reapply himself to this job. It is an enormous task but I know he can be up for it but he will have to fight to ensure adequate resources are made available to ensure these young people are looked after when all they want is a corner of the world that is their own.

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