Shane Cassells (Meath West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This afternoon I met representatives from ICTU to discuss the housing crisis. For their members, the issues of pay restoration and changes in terms and conditions, as well as all the normal union matters, will count for little if they cannot put roofs over their heads through purchasing a home or at the least gaining secure tenancy. The issue of affordability is key to what was in their minds. While they acknowledged that schemes were up and running again in certain parts of the country, few of these schemes could be chalked down as affordable or within the purchasing power of union members.

I see it in my native county. Developers are seeking to get schemes progressed but we are talking about high-end developments. They will not provide starter homes for people in their 20s or 30s. This goes to the heart of what we are discussing with Deputy Darragh O'Brien's motion, that is to say, affordability.

I witnessed something interesting this week that needs to be addressed as part of the conversation about developing much-needed affordable homes. At a county council meeting this week in my native county of Meath, an addendum item appeared on the agenda. The notice related to a €2.3 million loan to buy land in order that 55 county council houses could be built in Ashbourne. It sounds like a good news story in the round. The proposal is in a town where a large number of people are trying to obtain housing either on the county council waiting list or the private housing market. Instead, the reaction from locals on social media on the evening of the meeting was one of outrage and sheer anger. People were branding this a disgrace and asked whether the councillors were out of their minds. Why would anyone be against housing? It was because they made the point that the town, which is the second largest in the county and the fastest-growing in the area, has no green area for locals and there is a lack of amenities for the vast population that exists here and now and that has emerged over a ten-year period.

Consequently, we have locals coming together to try to stop this development before it ever gets going. The lack of investment from the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government in tandem with the channelling of funds to local authorities to meet the needs of the population that exists here and now has led to a backlash from these communities when it comes to any new houses being built, whether private, social or affordable. They are objecting to bricks and mortar because they believe their community is not being resourced. No one is catering for the people whose families are there at present.

We are entering a dangerous space, one to which the Department needs to front-up. I have been raising this for years. At a time when there is a housing crisis and we need to see affordable homes built, we have communities rising up and objecting to housing developments because of a lack of amenities and green areas. They will send these projects to planning appeals and delay them. Then the Government will have an even greater problem. It is one that frankly the Government deserves because it has not addressed the sheer lack of resourcing these councils face. Consequently, the councils are unable to provide the facilities that they need in tandem with affordable housing.

Those in government may bury their heads in the sand, decide to disregard such people and plough on but these people are real. The comments of these people in these communities were insightful. This was not a matter of politicians throwing scuds. These are ordinary people living in a community where housing is needed. They said they would not allow the project because the people who live there here and now are not being looked after. That is a quandary but one that can only be solved by addressing the reality that investment needs to take place. The Government cannot blame development plans.

Counties such as Meath, Wicklow and Kildare, where the population has exploded, receive low levels of funding per capitafrom the Department, with County Meath at the bottom of the list. In addressing the requirement to provide affordable homes, the Department must focus on creating communities rather than concrete jungles. If people do not get their heads around that, last Monday's experience in Ashbourne will be repeated across the country and act as an impediment to building affordable homes.

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