John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I commend my two colleagues, Deputies Cowen and Casey, for bringing this forward.

I am a great believer that in a crisis - we are in the midst of a crisis - one exercises control of what one can exercise control of. There have been a lot of solutions put forward by the Government over the past year and a half. The summer saw a lot of kites being flown, acting as a screen for some of the things that were not working. A classic example was when the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy declared that we have to build higher, particularly in Dublin city, as though this decision had not been taken. The decision has been taken. The challenge that the Minister has to face is why there is not a queue of planning applications for development on the locations where high rise has been allowed by Dublin City Council.

There are no easy answers to the housing crisis, but there are two key principles. The first, on which there is consensus, is that we should build houses, while the second is that we should make maximise use of the existing stock. That is the theme that has come through consistently. On building houses - despite what the Government states - I look at my local authority which, after Dublin City Council, is the largest housing authority in the country and the area of which includes two of the most challenged areas in the country, Tallaght and Clondalkin, and see that it will complete ten social homes this year. That is an indication of the lack of progress being made. I indicated on the Order of Business this morning that in 2014 when I was still a member of the council, a Part 8 process was initiated in Rathfarnam in my constituency for the construction of 38 social homes. Deputy Alan Kelly was Minister when we were discussing the initiation of the process; Deputy Simon Coveney was the Minister in charge when the Part 8 application was approved by the council and lodged with the Department, while Deputy Eoghan Murphy is now the Minister in charge, but three years on, not one sod has been turned on the site. There are processes that need to be managed and the fault in this case does not lie with the local authority.

In his closing remarks the Minister made reference to the fact that this was a solution-focused attempt to deal with the issue of maximising the use of the existing housing stock, particularly commercial units with empty space above them. The Government needs to work hard on the vacancy issue. Having spoken to senior council officials, I know that 600 vacant properties were identified in Dublin 24, but on a drive-by basis, the local authority has actually suggested there are probably only 30 or 40 vacant residential units. In terms of over-shop developments, all of the utilities required are already in place, including public lighting, water, sewerage and so forth. No new utilities are required, but obviously such units would have to be developed sensitively. As the Minister said, this is a solution-focused attempt by my party to contribute to efforts to deal with the housing emergency facing us.

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