Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to compliment Deputy Ó Broin for introducing legislation on this very complex issue. I worked with the Deputy on the Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government, as it was then called, and I know how dedicated he is to this area. Deputy O'Donoghue is a member of the current version of that committee.

We have talked and talked about this issue and published report after report. As Deputy O'Donoghue stated, even as we try to deal with the housing crisis, the Government levies enormous taxation in respect of the building of a house. We have to reduce that burden. It must be profitable for a builder to build a house. There is no point in blaming and demonising builders. County councils must get back to building houses. They have lost the wherewithal to do so. They built them in the 1940s, the 1950s, the 1960s, the 1970s, the 1980s and the 1990s. I remember seeing 30 or 40 men getting into the back of Hally and Sons' truck in Ardfinnan to travel to Kilkenny, the Minister of State's city, and build a house. They would be arrested if that happened today. However, they built those houses.

I want to pay tribute to the staff in my office. They do their best for the people, as I am sure the staff in all constituency offices do. The work done by Kathy, who will shortly take maternity leave from my office, is very difficult. The same applies to county council housing staffs. As we approach Nollag I want to thank them for their efforts. This area is very fraught and very difficult. I also pay tribute to Fr. Peter McVerry and Brother Kevin Crowley for the work they do, and all the people who get involved in feeding and looking after the homeless. However, our efforts are disjointed and we are pulling against each other. "Ní neart go cur le chéile" is my favourite slogan. A lot more could be done.

Bureaucracy has to be taken out of the situation. It is too hard to get planning permission to build a house in a rural area. I am in contact with at least ten couples who could build a house for themselves. They have jobs. Before Covid-19 they could get mortgages, but now the banks are not playing their part. They cannot get planning permission. Herding them all into towns is not working. Villages do not have the infrastructure. We need a multifaceted approach. We must allow the people who can build their own houses to do so.

Let us deal with the people who are about to be turfed out into the street, the shopkeepers, publicans and so on who have been hit hard by Covid-19. We must support them as well as we can. It will be difficult and challenging, but we need more focus and less red tape. The red tape involved would stretch from here to Doonbeg, across to Kilkenny, down to Wexford and back to the city again. It could wrap us all up and smother us. We have to cut that with a hacksaw, a chainsaw or whatever is needed, take that frustration out of the business and get back to building houses.

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