Maria Bailey (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I had not intended to speak until I heard some of the spurious remarks that were made in the Chamber. Just because someone shouts louder or is more animated does not mean the person is coming up with or delivering any solutions or that the person's intent is legitimate. It is obvious to see who is here in the Chamber and who cares or who speaks and makes it look as though they are concerned but then leaves immediately afterwards rather than hearing other ideas and proposed solutions from other Members. It is really grating as a backbencher who is very involved in trying to make a difference, and I believe I am making a difference, as is Deputy Pat Casey across the Chamber who is also on the joint committee on housing. He is there all the time when we meet three times a week, formally and informally, with all the additional meetings and is there trying to come up with ideas and solutions - legitimate ones - that are founded on real answers to achieve real results.

I have heard Deputies talk about marches and using the Chamber to advertise marches they are holding about various topics. It is great to mobilise people and I have heard the phrase "people power". I am all for communicating and bringing people with one. Where are they bringing them to? They are not actually coming forward with any ideas. Instead, all they are doing is ranting. The perception is that by shouting louder, being animated, speaking over people and making spurious remarks that they are doing everything. I do not see them at the housing committees or the ideas they are coming forward with, and I do not see them in the Chamber now. The legitimate people who want to make a difference are here. Other people can disagree with me if they want to.

I have been in politics long enough to see when people are mobilised and what happens when they start getting legal letters because they have not paid their bin or other charges. I see the same individuals who have been elected disappear when people go to them with legal letters. They do not help them. That is preying on vulnerability and abusing one's position. The responsible politicians are left to help those people because that is our duty. I do not believe in leading anybody up any garden path unless there is an answer at the end which will help them. I find it very insincere and disappointing that at this level in this Chamber this is happening. I am not somebody who is animated, rather, I am somebody who get on with it and does my work to the best of my ability.

The figures which were released yesterday are bitterly disappointing. This has been a serious issue for a very long time. Just because I am not animated does not mean I do not care. I have met many of the people affected. As a committee, we visited family hubs and discussed many of the other solutions in the plan to help people. We talked to people who are in difficult housing situations about how we can amend, fix or prevent situations like homelessness from occurring. The only way to inform policy is by talking to people who are currently going through a frustrating and serious situation which will have long-term consequences for their lives and have people who are informed and work in a professional manner help them come up with solutions in terms of implementation.

I have been involved in this for a long time. In local politics I saw at first hand the withdrawal of central government when it came to social housing. I saw that we moved to a system of private developers providing social housing, which was a mistake. It was not a decision made by this Government, but I do not want to go over the past because Fine Gael is about looking to the future. This Government has come into place with the answers, ideas and solutions which are required. We are also dealing with the mess that is substandard buildings. We have been asked to fix that and the taxpayers have to pay for it. They were the mistakes of the past when we did not put in place proper regulations. A previous Fianna Fáil Government did not put in place the standards and regulations which were required and taxpayers have to pay for their mistakes.

I want to outline number of ideas and solutions which have been implemented. I am not saying they are all perfect, but they are making a difference. The Government has amended planning laws with An Bord Pleanála, including a proposal that any building comprising over 100 units will go through a fast-track process of 25 weeks. The Minister came before our committee during the week. Planning permission has been granted for thousands of units. Fast-track planning permission is also allowing student accommodation to go through in 25 weeks if it is worthy. The numbers of planning permissions granted for such units number in the thousands. The rebuilding plan is a jigsaw with about 100 pieces. All of the pieces have to come together for it to work. In order to provide social, affordable and private housing we need all of the sectors to work together.

Some 32,000 people currently avail of HAP, which is not a long-term solution. An additional 17,000 families and individuals will be added to the list this year.

There are 500 family hub spaces. Again, I accept they are not a perfect solution. They are the short-term solution that will allow us the time to build long-term homes for those who live in the family hubs.

Approximately 8,000 social units will be delivered this year under the build, acquire and lease programme. This gave us breathing space to get that delivery up and running. However, to get delivery up and running, a broken sector that had no confidence to get on site had to be fixed. There is a massive risk involved. I know some people here think that if anyone who is in business, self-employed or in development is making a profit, he or she is a bad person. People will not build houses for nothing; they have to earn a living. This is always lost in the argument when the Deputies across from me bring it up. We have 700-odd sites around the country that are owned by the State, but it is up to us as Deputies to put pressure on our local authorities to come forward with plans for those sites. We can keep moving the blame elsewhere and to everyone else, but we as politicians have a responsibility, regardless of the party to which we belong, if the intent is to deliver housing for all in this country, to put pressure on and help our local authorities to come forward with schemes for those sites and support them when they do so.

We also had an issue in the downturn whereby we lost many good, experienced staff in local offices around the country. I know the issue is not funding around housing, but there is also funding that has been made available for additional staff when it comes to housing. Approximately 1,800 posts have been approved and sanctioned in the past 18 months for local authorities to help them across many of their departments, but in particular in the delivery of housing. One needs the staff on the ground to come forward with those schemes and one needs the funding to put those staff into those positions. That funding has been made available, and that has taken time. I know people like to forget that we were in a recession and that we are now down to 6% unemployment. I know people like to forget these good news stories, but we needed to get to that in order to get the rest of the country up and running.

Other things within the plan that are working are the Building Control (Amendment) Regulations and the SIRI Bill, as a result of which we know we will have quality builds. Whether it is commercial or residential, it is about quality builds. We know we have a shortfall in our construction area in respect of staff and we are working towards rectifying that now. The problem is not now; it will be in three years' time. We are working to offset that with upskilling programmes, new college programmes around the country and efforts to get people back to this country. We must get people back from Australia, Canada and America, and they must see a sustainable housing and construction market here, which is happening right now.

There are many pieces of this jigsaw. The cost-rental model that Deputy Ryan mentioned and the limit of 3,000 is only a start. We hope 20% or 30% of the rental market will be cost-rental. I accept everything is not perfect and that we have a long way to go. I absolutely accept that it is upsetting and frustrating for those 10,000 individuals and families who are going through this really difficult time in their lives, but we all have a duty of care here and a responsibility to make a difference in this, regardless of our party or the side of the House on which we sit. However, I ask those Deputies, rather than to rant and not come up with any solutions-----

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