Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Tá sé imithe. He has gone to greener pastures now on a big pension and wage. He destroyed the local authorities and many other things. He forced Irish Water on us.

Building houses is not rocket science. We could build them in the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1980s, noughties and then everything crashed. I have to ask why that happened. Deputy Ó Broin works very hard on the housing committee but there are reports and more reports. "Rebuilding Ireland" – what a term. People who can build should be allowed to do so. I know of at least ten couples in south Tipperary who want to build, who have sites and the wherewithal to meet the cost of building houses but who cannot get planning permission. They have to have so many acres of farmland and prove they came from the area. It is almost as though the authorities want to know where they were conceived if they want to get planning. It is ridiculous.

The motion refers to affordable housing and affordable housing schemes have been brilliant. I am a proud member of Caislean Nua voluntary housing association. We delivered 17 units. It may not be 100 units but it is still 17 units. There are many such groups in the Minister of State's native county and in Deputy Ó Broin's constituency. The groups were embarrassing the Department and local councils. The system was changed so that there was only one office in Dublin. There were seven and there are now five. We go around on a merry-go-round; there is paper going up and paper going down. A document is sent to the Department of the environment, six months later it is sent to a county council for clarification and six months after that it goes up and back again. It is a disgrace. I have repeatedly asked the Minister of State, the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, and the Taoiseach to bring county managers and directors of services for housing before a committee in which we could question them. It is said we gave them money but they did not build houses or the council then says it did not get the money. If it was not so serious, it would be like a game of Russian roulette. People cannot get houses. We got rid of all the bedsits in Dublin and did many other things to damage and diminish the efforts of housing authorities.

A company in Cahir is exporting 2,500 houses a year to England. I spoke the Minister of State about it last week and he referred me to the Minister of State, Deputy English, and I will speak to him. Its houses can be constructed in seven weeks but it cannot get accreditation in Ireland. It would take 15 months and cost €100,000. It can build houses in England. The company sent 2,500 houses to local authorities in England but cannot build here.

There are vacant houses. I saw a documentary on Northern Ireland, which is the next place a committee delegation should go, something I have asked for and perhaps Deputy Ó Broin will do the same. We should see what goes on in the Northern Ireland Housing Executive. Sinn Féin has plenty of experience from Northern Ireland as to what happens there. From the time a house is vacated and the keys are handed back to the authority, it takes 12 weeks to re-let a property. Some houses are vacant for four years in Tipperary. Every Thursday night I return home and pass a house where the occupants have all died. I check to see if the lights are on, but they are not and not even a candle is lit. It is pathetic. The lethargic ineptitude of the public service which is supposed to deliver housing is disgraceful. One can blame the Minister. The former Minister, Deputy Kelly, AK47, was going to rebuild Ireland and England. He did not build a henhouse in Toomevara or a dog shed in Carrick-on-Suir. A record 11 houses were built in Tipperary over five years. At present, 3,100 people have been approved for housing and about 10,000 are waiting. It is a joke and the people are tired and weary of it. I am tired and weary of talking about it. Let the people who want to build go out and build.

I pursued the issue of vacant shops in town for years in the context of the county development plan and the council in order to allow people to convert shops which have been vacant for ten years to living accommodation without charges. Something is happening now, but it is five or six years too late. We could repopulate towns and villages and bring them back to life, and allow people to get houses. There is too much bureaucracy. We are laden down with it.

As I said, voluntary housing associations are the same. They have the ability to deliver housing but there is too much red tape and we cannot have them embarrassing the public sector because county managers might have questions to answer at council meetings. They should be bought to the Houses and asked to account for their activity or inactivity.

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