Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am surprised Deputy Burton did not mention that when she was speaking on the issue. Deputy Kelly could not build a hen house in Toomevara or a dog house in Carrick-on-Suir and did not do so. It was all spin and talk. Members know of the Taoiseach's new spin unit. Deputy Kelly did not need his own spin team but he still has it and the ego to go with it. However, houses were not built while he was Minister. There have been too many Ministers for housing, with five or six in recent years, and there has been no continuity while people are dying on streets all over our country. Cork is affected, as is Clonmel, my home town in Tipperary. I am contacted by homeless families every couple of days. No progress is being made on housing although money is being thrown at it. It is pointless to do so when the outcomes are no better. We have lost the will, vision and capability to build social houses. It was left to private developers for decades and all Members know where that got us. It is now not profitable to build them. It must be profitable. I am neither in the pockets of nor a supporter of developers, but they need to be able to make some modicum of profit.

Before and since the publication of the programme for Government, Members have called on the Government to address the issue of vacant shops and premises in the middle of towns which have become desolate and to recognise that they could be turned into living accommodation without development charges or fees for planning or change of use. Some action in that regard was today announced by the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy. That would create a living town again and go some way towards solving the housing crisis. I do not know when the Government will do simple things such as that. It could instruct county managers to waive fees. If it is worried about giving breaks to builders, the VAT incurred during construction could be returned to the people who want to buy or lease such premises and do them up and buy all the materials. Such people would spend that money in towns and villages and improve the local economy in that way. A vision of what needs to be done seems to have been totally lost, which is very sad.

I will not address the issue of the Central Bank and the new chandeliers that have been installed there. I thought that kind of morass was gone with the recession but it has crept back in because no action has been taken. There has been no legislation to deal with bankers or to stop the Central Bank spending a scandalous amount of money on lighting. It is time the lights were turned off on those people.

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