John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not deny what the Deputy is saying but I cannot comment on cases of which I simply do not know the specifics. However, I will try to answer the Deputy more fully at a later time.

Deputy Gino Kenny' comments on ideology were interesting and in some respects, I do not disagree with him. He said that more ten years ago, there was a change. Indeed there was and the change meant that when the collapse in the economy came and the construction sector collapsed, we were so reliant on Part V provision for many of our local authority houses and so many construction workers left that not only did private house building collapse but we did not have the physical capacity or manpower for public houses either. I could not swear to it, but I believe that ideological change came in one of the Planning and Development Acts that were enacted the late 1990s and early 2000s, when Noel Dempsey was Minister.

In respect of my own home city of Kilkenny and Waterford, the city beside which I live, I absolutely agree. I grew up on a 60-acre farm in south Kilkenny with two bedrooms. Eight people lived in the house. It was my aunt's house. I can assure Deputy Gino Kenny that from a class point of view, there is not as much between he and I as others might think.

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