Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to get the opportunity to talk on this matter this evening. I believe that most people who get up in the morning want to do right and they mean well but I have concerns about putting compulsory purchase orders, CPOs, on land or taking land off people. I am worried about that because if land was handed down or had to be bought at a high price, it may not be fair to take it off people if the balance is not right as Deputy Michael Healy-Rae said. Developers may not be able to get finance, there may be right of way issues, there could be several things, there could be title issues or there could be many reasons so that is why I would not put my name to a CPO directive to take land off people and hand it on to anyone.

There was mention this evening of 200,000 houses being vacant around the country. That could be right but they are not in the right places. There are houses vacant in different rural, isolated places where families will not or cannot go as there is no public transport, facilities or services. Mention was also made of the repair and lease scheme. The reason that scheme is not successful is that there was not enough money given to it and because the local authorities could only operate the repair and lease scheme where there was a need for social housing or where there was pressure on. As far as Kerry was concerned that was Tralee, Killarney and Dingle. The repair and lease scheme did not apply to all of the rest of the county.

The Government is saying it has so many plans and reports about what it will do and what will be done but I believe that the finance is not there. Why does the Government not come out straight and say it because in Kerry there are 37 people now who have applications in for rural cottages. They have the sites themselves. They will not be considered until 2021, so if people who have the sites and the need cannot get their houses built because the Department will not give the green light to the local authority, that signals that the money is not there.

It is the same with the way demountable homes are being blocked by the Government. The Taoiseach did not even know what they were but I can tell the Minister of State that I know what they are and the people who are inside them and living in them at present in Kerry want them to be upgraded but they will not get them. The only people who will get a demountable home now are those whose house gets flooded or goes on fire. Those are the reasons that have been given by the Department. That rules out demountable homes altogether and that says to me that the Government just does not have the funding.

To get back to this Bill which proposes to take property off people. These are human beings as well and most of these people mean well. We have to look at it seriously. We should let the Bill progress and let it be evaluated in the other forums but I have a concern, as I always had, about putting a CPO on property belonging to someone else because it is not the right way to do it.

See this speech in context