Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

In the past two years the attention of those of us on the Opposition benches has been focused on housing, rightly so. Notwithstanding the new Government, Taoiseach and Minister and the various new plans, the housing crisis has worsened. To any reasonable observer, it has become an emergency, with people dying on the streets and the number of homeless children increasing by 30% since this time last year. Declaring a housing emergency is a prerequisite to dealing with the housing crisis in a sustainable manner and allowing the Government to pursue alternative solutions. While the private market will have a role to play in providing these solutions, public construction of housing, the provision of affordable houses, shared ownership schemes, regulated rented markets and a much greater role for co-operatives will be vital in providing alternative solutions once the Government sees its way to declaring a housing emergency.

Tragically, none of this is happening. The Government's failure to learn from its mistakes and its reliance on the private market to provide housing, albeit with the full support of taxpayers' money, is worsening the crisis. I will focus on Galway as an example of what this reliance on the free market has allowed to happen. The beautiful city of Galway has a population of 80,000 and a housing waiting list of approximately 13,000 people dating back to 2001. Lands in the inner city, at Ceannt Station where 14 acres of land is available and in the inner docklands area where more than 2 ha. is available, have been earmarked as key regenerative areas, but there is no master plan, area action plan or overall vision. We are back to developer-led development. Development in Galway, where land has been zoned and public land is available at Ceannt Station and the docks, is developer-led on the sites that have been sold. Moreover, the authorities are in the process of selling public land at the Ceannt Station site. There is no master plan or local area plan in a city with a development plan that demands and sets out objectives for such plans and refers to sustainable development, mixed communities and the development of communities in the city. A regional plan was also drawn up further to a discussion document that referred to moving away from developer-led development and learning lessons. No lessons have been learned. Not one house has been constructed with public funds in Galway since 2009.

At this point, all I can do in the three minutes available to me is to draw the Tánaiste's attention to the crisis, ask him to use whatever legal power is available to him to intervene in Galway and listen to the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government which, in its previous guise as the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, set out that, at a minimum, a local area action plan should be developed prior to any strategic zone being adopted for the lands in question.

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