Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister and the Minister of State for their presentations. We heard a Sinn Féin Deputy talk about the spots that Fianna Fáil always wore. Their frustration is born out of the fact that we are now in government and building houses. That is where their frustration is coming from. Sinn Féin cannot bear to see all the housing projects that have started in the past six to eight months. That is where that frustration comes from. I am proud to be a Fianna Fáil Deputy because we are addressing the housing crisis that has beset this country for a long number of years.

I want to talk about a family firm that is a key cornerstone in getting houses built. Two brothers and a mother run a company that employs 50 people. They had just started a housing project in Louth including 94 social houses but, unfortunately, the building work had to stop with the Covid restrictions that have been imposed. They invested heavily in different forms of machinery and materials to get this project off the ground. They have commitments with their banks and lease companies. They are being told that if they do not honour their commitments, the banks will give them a moratorium but it will affect their credit rating. For two young men who have recently set up a very efficient firm, that is just not on. This cash flow problem is completely outside their control. As the Minister said, hopefully they will be able to restart construction on 5 March, get back to work and their cash flow will get back on stream. As it stands, both the banks and the leasing companies they are dealing with are not treating them fairly. This is not an isolated incident; it is happening to many other construction companies around the country. Others might scoff at developers but these are the people who will build the houses and we need them to do that. We worried about the availability of tradesmen and everything else when we were trying to get our housing projects up and running. It is absolutely essential that the companies that are going to build these houses for us are kept in business and treated fairly by our banks and financial institutions.

I support Deputy Cathal Crowe's comments on the infrastructure in rural counties such as my own, Tipperary, and Clare. An awful lot of our small towns and villages do not have any waste treatment infrastructure and that is hindering development. We see plans about clusters of houses being built in these villages but the infrastructure to do it is just not there. That needs to be addressed immediately.

The national framework plan focuses on houses being built in clusters in towns with a bar on building houses in rural areas. That needs to be looked at. To say that family members cannot build houses where they were born and raised will not be acceptable to rural villages and will decimate local communities, whether the schools in local areas or the hurling or football teams. If we do not have the ability to build house in rural areas, it will have a hugely detrimental effect going forward.

People are off work for prolonged periods and in mortgage arrears due to Covid restrictions. A moratorium that does not affect credit ratings must be examined.

There are houses being built where construction has had to stop due to Covid. Some of those houses are at a stage where the weather will have a serious impact on them. A builder who is building four houses at the moment was on to me this morning. He visited the site this morning and dampness is having a serious impact on those houses. Could they be allowed to do remedial work on those houses to bring them to a point where the weather will not continue to damage them?

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