Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This is a very short Bill which seeks to prohibit any rent increases for all existing and new tenancies for three years. I will cut to the chase. In my constituency of Cork South-West we need more investment in social housing. We need to sort out our planning laws, which are completely outdated at best. It is time for rank-and-file change in the planning system. It is full of negativity and Government policies steering the planners to negative results on so many planning permission applications from our young people. I have constituents who have expertise on many fronts that are being worked on in other European countries to solve the European housing crisis as we speak. Last Sunday evening I visited one such constituent in west Cork who showed me how shipping container living is possible for our young people to get them off to a start without having to rent or to go on any social housing list. This is happening in other European countries, but the planners in Ireland look negatively upon this container living. That has put an end to another great idea to help solve our housing crisis.

It is most frustrating then for me and the public to hear the Tánaiste say he will build 40,000 houses a year if in government in the future when we know he is leading the public, as we would say in west Cork, down the garden path. This morning I also heard the Minister of State's party leader, Deputy Eamon Ryan, stating he wants more people living in our smaller towns and villages, living, as he called it, over the shop, something I called for during the talks on Government formation in 2016 and in 2020 as a perfect chance to turn our smaller towns and villages into vibrant towns and villages. In spite of all this talk, however, including from the Minister, nothing is happening - absolutely nothing. It is lovely to talk. One Minister is trying to con the people, telling them he will build 40,000 houses. Another one is dreaming about all the derelict houses and over-the-shop housing being sorted in rural Ireland. It sounds beautiful but we need action on the ground and we have not got it.

We need to get down to brass tacks. If young people have solutions like shipping containers and log cabin living in and around the homes of their parents, we need to force a mindset change with the planning authorities and, if built in an unobtrusive way, make these projects allowable immediately. I have no doubt that if the Government does so, it will help wipe maybe half the people seeking social housing from the housing list.

It will give these young people a chance to build a bit of capital either to buy their own home or get a mortgage.

My clinics every Friday and Saturday are inundated with people seeking houses from Innishannon all the way out to Goleen. It is a massive area where people are pleading with me to get houses. They are broken-hearted, inside my office, crying their hearts out, asking why they cannot get a home. Some dread the thought of being homeless. It is an awful fright for people. There are solutions and, if the Government is willing to work with local politicians or someone locally with expertise, who might have come from abroad or worked abroad all his or her life, then that is what it needs to do.

See this speech in context