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

I will be supporting this Bill and I welcome it today. We have been in this House speaking about social housing, council housing and whatever else we used to call it since I was elected to the Dáil in 2016 and before that, to the council in 2014.

To be honest, nothing has progressed but it has got worse and worse. An unmerciful influx of people have been coming into my office every weekend, and presumably into the offices of every other Deputy here, pleading with me to get them council houses. Some of them have been on the council housing list for ten or 12 years. More are, just like the fellow said, trying to get off the ground. In every way, shape and form, we will do everything in our control to make sure they will never progress. A young couple that is under-earning, as such, or that is on a small income but is happy to have a go at buying a house cannot get a mortgage and cannot get off the ground at all. As for those who have a few quid put together and who would do their best to build at home on the family farm, every obstruction is put before them to make sure that this does not happen. It is an appalling situation.

I heard a Senator in west Cork recently say there is no issue with planning. Good God almighty, does he have anyone coming to his office? The whole place is plagued with planning crises. We have a planning crisis at the moment. Genuine applicants are refused for every - I do not want use language in the Dáil - but some people would say for "kiss my ass" reasons. These are every other reason, other than what should be put before them, which is to co-operate with them and to make sure that the structure is right. Every other reason is put before them to make sure that it does not happen. This is pushing everybody towards social housing. Everyone is moving towards council housing and social housing and the country cannot cope with that. There are opportunities out there. There are opportunities in beautiful towns and villages in rural Ireland where they have a lot to offer. I know quite a lot of them in west Cork. They are fantastic places to live. They have great teachers, schools and community centres. There would be opportunities in those towns and villages, were grants given to the people who own some of those houses or who live over the shop, to do up the premises. There should be a tax incentive afterwards to let their premises. That is what we need to be looking at. People and the Government need to look towards that but the Government is not looking doing so. As I said earlier, everybody is looking for a new house on a site but the Government is not able to cope with that demand. Moreover, it will never be able to cope with that demand because the demand is getting worse.

I have great sympathy, it was mentioned here earlier, about students and accommodation. People from all over west Cork cannot get accommodation anywhere in Cork city. We are very lucky to have a private bus company, West Cork Connect, which last week started to run several times a day from Bantry. It travels to Cork through Drimoleague, Dunmanway and Ballineen. There is a Skibbereen run to Cork which travels through Leap, Rosscarbery, Clonakilty, Ballinascarthy, Bandon and Innishannon. That happens several times a day. A private individual is doing that type of run because children cannot get accommodation in Cork city. People in my own constituency in west Cork approached me over the weekend who are looking for accommodation in Galway, Limerick and Dublin. I cannot give them any answer, unfortunately. They have no accommodation. It is unfortunate that we have a situation whereby young people who want to go to college in Cork cannot find accommodation. If it were not for the bus company, West Cork Connect, they would be stranded and left without education because of the collapse of the system in this country. We have the social housing crisis, we have the student crisis and we will come back in 12 months' time to talk about the same things again because nothing is happening. There is no thinking. The Ministers are all escaped of thought. They must wake up to the fact that there are properties in rural Ireland that could be turned around. Were tax incentives or grants given, they could get moving on the issue and try to resolve the situation.

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