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

I hate talking about politicians if they are not here to defend themselves. I asked people to introduce a scheme and when that was announced to much fanfare, it was a disgrace. It was like selling people a pig in a poke. On the one hand, people think the scheme is working but it is like a three card trick. Now you see it and now you do not. When a person wants to use it, that is not possible, but it still exists. It is a complete joke.

I agree with Deputy Mattie McGrath's comments on voluntary housing agencies. I also recognise the work done by non-voluntary housing agencies in providing housing. The long and the short of it is that we welcome any avenue from which we get housing. We do not want layers of bureaucracy.

The best option would be to go back to what used to happen where local authorities would build a scheme of houses and give them to people who would live in them and then have the opportunity to purchase them when their finances improved and they got their legs under them.

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