Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It does not want to hear. It is a case of speak no evil, hear no evil and see no evil. The housing policies are a disaster and were so long before the recession kicked in because the Government gave in to the private sector. The councils had stopped building. There is an argument there. The councils do not get the money but the Government says it gave it to them. Deputy Fitzmaurice said a minute ago that the councils had not applied for enough money.

We have heard different announcements and Rebuilding Ireland is the latest coupled with "an Ireland of opportunities". Where are the opportunities? The housing assistance payment, HAP, scheme is the biggest disaster ever implemented. Who brought it in? It was AK47 himself, the former Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly. He was going to sort everything out. He would not build. Where is he tonight? Where is the Labour Party? It was the party that looked after the working man, ordinary families, small farmers and business people over the years in my county, with Members such as Seán Treacy, the late John Ryan, Michael Ferris and many others. They had the confidence of the ordinary people. The party does not have that now because it got into bed with Fine Gael which was not interested in the ordinary people. It never was. It will hardly be interested now. Scheme after scheme will be launched and there will be conferences and announcements. I am on the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government, but I do not bother going to the meetings because they are futile. The schemes are all built like sandcastles. At the first drop of water that comes inshore, they disappear. They are not realisable or achievable because the Government does not understand the basics of allowing the county councils to build the houses and providing them with the wherewithal to do that.

On the other hand, there are many young couples in my constituency who have employment and sites, thank God. They have engaged agents to design houses and apply for planning permission but they cannot get it. Every obstacle in the book is put before them. It may be that it is a designated area, such as a special area of conservation, SAC, but ordinary people, even farmers' sons or daughters, have no hope unless they are farming 25 ha or more. There has to be only one person farming. It is a case of to hell or to Connaught. They could house themselves and the Government will not allow them. It is herding them into towns, but it will not allow schemes in towns, such as conversion of shops that are closed to housing. There has to be change of use and planning fees, and the fees and development charges are high. It is not viable. It is not profitable for small builders to build a house.

The banks will not give a penny to anybody to build a house. They are not functioning as far as ordinary people are concerned. We have seen what has happened with the tracker mortgages, repossessions and how the courts are not protecting people. They are evicting people by the week. A child in senior infants could do the arithmetic to show that the Government is putting more people out of houses every week than it is building houses for and the crisis gets worse. I walked down the street near here this evening and saw massive building sites with towering cranes, all development of offices. I welcome that because it brings jobs, but where are those people going to live? The Government has put the cart before the horse. It has lost its way completely as regards housing. The Labour Party totally acquiesced in that and denied the people the right to get a home, and denied their rights under the Constitution. It is a far cry from the Labour Party that was founded in Clonmel. The Government got away with that but the people gave it a severe wallop, as the then Taoiseach said, but it will get more of them because it is not doing anything to help ordinary people get housing.

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