Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I do not have very long and I will not need very long. Everything has been said. We have heard the various terms to describe co-living, if that is even the correct term. We have heard the word "bonkers". We have heard about almost battery-cage living. Members have said it straight; there is no need for a review. Co-living needs to be banned. The terms I keep hearing are "substandard" and "not fit for purpose", highlighted particularly in these pandemic times, when we all understand how important space is. I imagine people who are forced to live in this substandard accommodation do not have any difficulty with bubbles. They are involved in far more bubbles than they want. That is not something we can stand for. A ban is the only way this should be dealt with.

Deputy Ó Laoghaire spoke about the fact that local authorities are hamstrung. In Louth County Council we have a major difficulty in that for even the local authority housing we have, we have no maintenance budget. Combined with this, we are spending about €1 million a year on servicing the loans on landbanks, some of which were bought at the height of the Celtic tiger boom on instruction from the Fianna Fáil Government at the time. Louth County Council has had these landbanks on its books since. Nobody has ever crystallised the losses on them and there have been constant promises from Departments but never a solution. In fairness, I spoke to the Minister about this and I believe he will hold a meeting with Louth County Council, to include councillors, elected representatives of all sorts and the council executive. I suppose it is very difficult to arrange such a meeting in the current pandemic but we need to ensure it happens because this is what has us absolutely hamstrung.

The only solution to the problem we have is to empower local authorities to do what was for many years, namely, build houses for the public on public land. We are talking across the board of mixed developments. We are talking about local authority housing, or council houses, and also affordable cost rentals for those who can afford to pay a fair rent but not necessarily the €1,000, €1,200, €1,400 or €1,600 one could be paying in urban Dundalk at this point. If it were not for HAP and the extortionate amounts paid into that scheme, people would be completely without housing. We accept the reality, but the problem is that HAP sets the baseline, so we have a completely dysfunctional system that needs to be fixed. Affordable cost-rental accommodation, affordable mortgages and the building of council houses - those are the solutions. We do not need these bonkers battery-cage living places. This was said by people who are now in positions of power while they were in positions over here, so we need follow-through.

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