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

I appreciate the Minister's response, but why is it that when a person becomes a Minister they find it more difficult to give a straight answer? The Minister spoke about the end of the year. Is he talking about next week? People want to work. They want to provide units. A lot of operations around this country are on hold. The pause button has been pressed, because everyone is waiting to see what the Government will do. I have been asking the Minister about this matter over a long period of time on behalf of people who are coming to me to say that they are ready to go and ready to put in a planning application, but who want to know under what constraints they will have to operate.

The Minister knows that when we are talking about housing we are talking about people who might come up from the countryside who get a job in Dublin. That person might be happy to live in a bedsit for a number of years until they are established and get up the rank a bit, save a bit of money and are able to provide different accommodation for themselves. It is all about using common sense. The outright ban on bedsits is wrong and it is costing us in terms of the provision of housing units which could be completed to high standards.

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