Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom cúpla focal a rá agus ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil leis an gComhaontas Glas. I am delighted to be able to speak here tonight on the motion but I am tired of speaking on such motions, even if it is a very good one. This is because of the inaction of the Government and the inability of this Government, the last one and, to some extent, the one before it to build houses and supply a housing stock. It was a normal thing to build council houses and I do not know what is wrong that the Government cannot build them now. I do not know what planet the Taoiseach is on. Today, he said that Deputy Martin was here longer than most people expected to live. If that is the life expectancy those in the Government have, God help us all. Is that the way the Government is gone now? To hell with the people - let them live in boxes, give them shovels and let them live by the seaside, fall into the sea and go away with the tide. It is madness.

I have asked the Minister of State countless times to bring up the county managers and housing directors to sit down with him and say who is codding whom. Millions are announced for this and that but nothing is built, never mind anything else. Not all landlords can be demonised. They are not all bad. There are very good ones out there too. We need a rental market. We also need more voluntary housing units. Those groups can build them. I am involved in one of them. The Ceann Comhairle is gone but I was tempted to say while he was here that there is a fabulous building - an old convent - in Naas. It has up to 100 units in the complex. The people in the voluntary sector will have to do it because the Government, with all its advisers and spin, cannot do it. As Deputy Healy-Rae said, despite all the cranes and everything else, the Government is just not building. It is codding the people. It is not rocket science. Get those people into the rooms here and see who is codding whom. Money is being announced but nothing is built. They are saying they have not got the money and the Government is saying it gave it to them. The people know, however.

I think that there is a greater motive not to build houses for people and to have them in a situation of distress and the trauma that goes with it. The Government has a lot to answer for and a lot of questions will be asked in years and decades to come because it is an abysmal failure with regard to building dwelling houses for rent and otherwise.

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