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

It went out under the Minister's name. I am not blaming him, but his statement said that he was going to take people out of urban areas and take them out to rural areas to house them. I want him to tell me how many vacant houses or how many houses are ready for habitation in County Kerry which I represent. We do not have houses for the people we have on our own housing lists. Forget about taking people out of Dublin and bringing them down to Kerry because we do not have houses ready for habitation there yet. There are vacant houses but they are a long way from getting them ready or making them fit to put people into them. The Minister must acknowledge that.

The pace at which we are going at these houses is as slow as it took the snail to get to Jerusalem. The Department demands four stages of approval. Imagine what one of those stages was with Kerry County Council. We are building 20 houses in Killarney, the first in about eight years. One of the stages was that the Department wanted the council to lower the cost of the 20 houses. That was very wrong and a needless waste of time. The cost of the houses cannot be determined until the contract goes out and the tender comes in and until then one cannot determine the cost of the houses. Those stages of approval being demanded by the Department only hold up the project. I am asking the Minister to say honestly if he has the money to build the houses. If he does not he should come out and tell us and everyone will accept it. I am sure they will because one cannot get blood out of a turnip and one cannot build houses without money. At the housing committee this morning, a Deputy said the local authorities had lost their way in building houses. That was very unfair of him to say. The former Taoiseach said so as well. The local authorities will build the houses as they always did if they have the money and the Government will release it to them to allow them to build the houses. Otherwise, the houses will not be built.

Finally, VAT and levies are demanded on the building of private houses. If the Government could do something about that it would allow private builders to build houses as well. Until it does that, no houses will be built.

See this speech in context