Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State has set out the targets which he says have been exceeded by Meath County Council. I am not going to be critical of the local authority which is working with limited resources. When the Minister of State refers to 1,200 being the total housing delivery for 2018, 767 of those units, or the vast majority, relate to HAP and RAS. That is not sustainable social housing. It is also a reason people are taken off the housing list. Their housing needs are deemed to be met when they go on HAP. While HAP, which is the old rent allowance in a new guise, is important, it is not the answer and it does not provide the stability people need. That is the problem. People need stability and are entitled to it.

I can see the arguments behind why the Minister of State says we are not going back to building hundreds of social housing units in the one place. They are obvious. However, it is not an excuse for having ten here, 20 there or even the two largest projects planned for Meath of 55 units in Ashbourne and 42 in Navan. Farganstown is listed on the current design plans. While the social housing in various rural areas is welcome and there is demand for it and while it has to go through proper planning and so on, it is a drop in the ocean compared to what is required. It is important that whatever social housing is provided is on bus routes, in established communities and suitable for people to live in. We do not want people moving to areas they do not know with no public transport, which is something I have seen happen over the years.

The ambition has to be much greater. While we can see houses going up and houses being bought, I do not see that greater vision into the future. I see a great deal of plugging of holes in terms of filling in sites the local authority already has ownership of and I see that running out. I see a greater reliance on HAP than is there even already and a greater reliance on the purchase of houses in the private market which has the other effect on the housing market of increasing the price for everyone else. If the local authority was building its own houses, it would actually reduce the price for everyone else as there would be more houses there. We have it the wrong way around and are entitled to see a better vision for social housing.

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