Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I move:

Bill entitled an Act to repeal the parts of the Planning and Development Act 2000 that provide for the provision of social housing via Part V leasing.

When Eoghan Murphy announced his resignation yesterday, he claimed credit for having, in his time as Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, the largest spend on public housing in the last decade. How much we are spending is the wrong metric to be looking at. We should instead be looking at outcomes. Where social housing is concerned, the outcomes we should be looking for are how many people are being housed and having their housing needs met and how secure that accommodation is. At this stage we have 140,000 people on housing waiting lists or in insecure HAP tenancies and more than 8,000 people who have lost their homes living in emergency accommodation.

A headline in today's edition of The Irish Timesreads "Social housing portfolio guiding €21m". The article states "The prospect of immediate rental income copper-fastened by the security of a 25-year government lease is expected to see strong interest from investors".

I must say it is a pity the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage is in full flight of conversation at the moment, because these are important points.

See this speech in context