James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am glad of this opportunity to speak on the issues of housing and local government and I want to start by commending the staff of Wexford County Council on the phenomenal work they have been doing in the community in recent weeks. I will try to keep my contribution to two questions. We had a housing crisis before Covid-19 came along. That housing crisis is still there and it will be there after the Covid-19 crisis. What steps will the Minister be taking to ensure that housing is prioritised when the lockdown is being wound down and, more importantly, how will social, affordable and private housing be prioritised in the recovery phase?

In any unwinding of the lockdown that involves the housing sector, what steps will be put in place to ensure that as construction workers are going back to work, they are protected and that the proper safety measures will be put in place? Who will be in charge of ensuring those safety measures are put in place? Will it be the Health and Safety Authority? Will it be the National Standards Authority of Ireland, NSAI?

A number of supermarkets and petrol stations are effectively turning themselves into garden centres and hardware stores. I am not knocking their ingenuity in that respect, but it is somewhat galling for some garden centres and hardware stores to understand how it is okay to purchase large amounts of garden centre goods inside of a supermarket but garden centres that are wide open and perhaps safe to go into are not allowed to reopen. Gardening is very good for people's mental health. Any reopening has to be in accordance with health and safety measures, but there is an issue there and I wonder if the Minister could address that point.

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