Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is a very important legislative proposal, which I very much support. We need to be real about what has happened in this State in the past so that we can make the right decisions now. I would absolutely challenge what Sinn Féin has said about houses, the private sector and local authorities. The fact is, that between 2011 and 2017 NAMA offered 6,640 houses to local authorities up and down country. These houses were built and empty and ready for occupation but the local authorities just took 2,500 of them and rejected all the rest. In Dublin alone, the four local authorities were offered 2,000 fully completed homes. They took 776 of these, which was 38%. The 12,024 houses that were offered to the Dublin local authorities then went to the exact people the Deputies are talking about, to the vulture funds and to those who exploit the people who live in the houses now. That is the reality of what has happened in the past. Local authorities did not step up to the mark and they did not do the job. They did not have the capacity to do their job in most parts of the country. This legislation will aggregate all the land that local authorities and State bodies have and it will consider areas of population greater than 30,000, specifically, to say "What can we do, how can we effect change, how can we make sure this land is built on, and how do we make sure we meet the needs of our communities?" Yes, of course we need affordable housing and social housing.

We need to look at people who are earning but cannot get into the market because properties in the city centre are occupied by wealthy people, bankers, those working for vulture funds and so on. The Land Development Agency should build homes and apartments in cities and major town centres for teachers gardaí, nurses and other middle income people who can go in there if they have the qualification and if they are essential workers, because they cannot otherwise compete in the marketplace and they cannot pay the rents. We should also look after them. We need to ensure that we designate sites for them. Apartments and appropriate supports should be in place for them.

We also need to look after older people in our society. The Land Development Agency should ideally get land that would suit older people and build energy-efficient housing to reduce their carbon footprint. It needs to ensure that older people find it attractive to move from their existing homes, which are far too big for them in many cases, into smaller, more appropriate and better located properties.

Considerable action is needed. We need to end the diatribe against people who work to make a living. If local authorities can work with people to reduce what the State must pay, why not work with private enterprise? What is wrong with working together to reduce the cost for everybody? That makes sense. I will make a further contribution on Committee Stage.

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