Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach did not tell us when that will be addressed. It is important for us to hear that today. I do not know if I am living on a different planet or in a different country, but all I see in the area that I represent are turnkey developments that are being long-leased by the local authority. I do not see any builds. I do not see where all this social housing is coming from. I can give the Taoiseach the names of the estates that are long-leased.

I live 100 yd from an estate which is under construction and in which 61 Part V houses are to be long-leased for 25 years. Tomorrow night, in our Private Members' time, my colleague, Deputy Cian O'Callaghan, will bring a Bill before the House to deal with this issue. As I said, I live only 100 yd from the estate. Everybody expected that the 61 houses would be local authority housing and would be peppered throughout what would be a nice estate. It was expected that the State would buy these houses such that they would be an asset at the end of the process. Nobody expected that these houses would be long-leased for 25 years, after which they would be refurbished and returned to the developer. I have raised this issue previously with the Taoiseach. This is madness. The Taoiseach needs to tell us when this is going to change.

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