Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Thank you, a Cheann Comhairle, for extending to me an opportunity that we all relish, that is, to speak on this particular issue that has engaged us over the past ten years with increasing frequency and severity in terms of the people who require housing. There is a simple way to deal with the issue. We are thinking of new ways and new descriptions to deal with it, but it is the old-fashioned ways that will solve the problem, that is, we build more houses. We must build houses as a matter of urgency to meet the requirements of the people who are on local authority housing lists or who are likely to become part of the local authority housing list.

Members should not forget that when I was a member of an all-party committee a few years ago I called for a greater emphasis on direct building by local authorities and a move away from the approved housing bodies as a means of solving the problem. That is still the way to solve the problem.

We need to build energy-efficient houses, but we need the houses first. The energy efficiency is important and it is important to incorporate energy efficiency in the building of the houses, but as a matter of urgency we need to change the situation of the person who does not have a home, who perhaps has a family of four or five living in a two-bedroomed apartment, or whatever the case may be, and who has been on a transfer list for four or five, and in some cases, ten years. That can be done by the next Government. It can be done in a number of ways. It can be done by means of the local authority loans system. Such loans are readily available to qualified applicants. We do not have to go around the country trying to find ways and means and loopholes to get through the haze and maze of the system. It can be done by means of private development sites. We had them in Kildare and in all other counties throughout the country and they were very effective and efficient especially in meeting the market of those on the local authority housing list who were in a position to fund their own home by getting a loan to do it. They did it very effectively and efficiently. As you know, a Cheann Comhairle, all over Kildare we had fine examples of that, and in other counties as well.

We can also do it by way of direct build, which is the point on which I started my contribution. We need about 37,000 houses in a year to tackle the market and to break the back of it once and for all. I am not being pejorative when I say it, but the next Government, whoever the Minister is, will have to face that reality. It is a tough one, but it means we will have to bring forward the requirement. Having a five-year plan, whereby at the end of it the people who are already waiting ten years are 15 years on the waiting list, will not work. We must do a simple thing, that is, bring forward the plan and deliver upfront. In the first year and a half or two years we must, in effect, deliver the majority of the requirement in what might become a five-year plan.

Like you, a Cheann Comhairle, I could speak for ages on this subject because it is above and beyond all others; it is the one single subject that takes up most of our time in constituency work. It used to take up approximately a quarter of the time but now it takes up approximately 75% of the time. That is an indication of the urgency and the need of the people who remain on housing lists.

I wish to give the Minister of State an opportunity to reply. There is also a group of people, which fall between those who qualify for a local authority house and those who have sufficient income to get a loan of their own, namely, those who are short of qualifying for a loan.

They have to be considered. The local authority has ways and means of doing that and did in the past by using various methods to ensure that the loan system was brought within their reach. All of these will be the challenge of the incoming Government and the incoming Minister. It will be a great opportunity for a successful breakthrough.

I compliment the work of the current Minister and Minister for State. I compliment them for doing everything that was possible in a very difficult situation. Unfortunately, the challenge is still there. Whoever is the Minister in the incoming Government, I hope that in the first week there will be a realisation that we have an emergency on our hands.

I will finish with one last point. House prices are far too high in this country. One of the things that is assessed in the determination of wealth is property prices. Of course, then we must have higher salaries and wages because half of the salary goes in the payment of the mortgage. Obviously, that will have an impact on the quality of life of those who live in the houses.

I could go on, as the Ceann Comhairle could as well, as I well know.

See this speech in context