Declan Breathnach (Louth, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The heads of the housing (regulation of approved housing bodies) Bill were approved in September 2015 and the pre-legislative scrutiny was completed in February 2016. There are over 6,500 people employed in housing bodies. Last year the housing bodies built 669 houses, while local authorities built 430 in the past 18 months. With the appointment of an independent regulator, does this legislation envisage proper synergies between the local authority housing departments and these bodies? There are 547 such bodies and, according to a reply I received to a parliamentary question, 13 of them are employing over 6,500 people. This has become an industry. I have thought long and hard about the problems with housing over my 25 years in local government. If we had 6,500 people working together with the diminished number of employees in the local authorities, many of the problems we have with housing would not exist.

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