Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Murnane O'Connor referred to County Kilkenny. I want to wish Bobby Aylward, our former colleague from that county, well. He is going through a bad patch at the moment. Is an-chara liom agus le gach éinne é. He is a former colleague of the Minister.

I previously asked the Minister of State to come to see one of the great Irish houses near where I live, in Knocklofty. Will he please come down to see it? It is part of our national heritage. Knocklofty House is being plundered. I was at one of the houses on the site last night. It was a very sad occasion. I was shocked to see the state of it. The Minister promised to come down in September but September is nearly over. "Cad a dhéanfaimid feasta gan adhmad? Tá deireadh na gcoillte ar lár." Cad a dhéanfaimid feasta gan adhmad anois? Níl píosa adhmad ar bith le fáil.

This housing policy is great on paper but I am sick and tired of it. I was on the committee for five years and I just walked away from it. If thought could build houses, there would be no one homeless. Who would have thought there would be so many homeless families? There are 753 families homeless at the moment. That there are 2,120 homeless children and 8,212 homeless adults is a shocking indictment. In response, the Government gives us reports like this.

I am not going to play politics like Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Sinn Féin did the other night. There is not even one Sinn Féin Deputy present for this debate, which is amazing. They would build sandcastles in the sky for you, no bother, but none of them ever drew a plan or built a house in their life or was part of a voluntary housing association or anything else.

The Government needs to go back to basics. It needs to go back to voluntary housing associations and support them. I did it myself with voluntary lay people. We have bureaucracy now and rules and guidelines and all kinds of rubbish and regulations. Many of them are the result of the actions of the Minister's party. The Minister of State, Senator Hackett, is sitting there and will not allow a tree to be cut down. One cannot get a bit of timber now. The price has gone up. A supplier will not give a price more than three days in advance because the price is going up and up. The Government is fooling itself by hiring extra experts. A man who plants a tree should be allowed to harvest it in the same way as a man who plants spuds, beet, miscanthus or anything else can harvest them. God's law is that one reaps what one sows. What the hell kind of laws do we have here that we will not allow that? The price of oil has gone up. The Government closed all the peat plants. The price of insulation has gone through the roof because of the increase in the cost of oil. It is the same with everything else. The Government is talking about other things instead of sorting out those problems.

I refer to families trying to get planning permission in rural Ireland. Someone asked about getting planning permission for nieces and nephews a while ago. One cannot even get it for sons or daughters. It is a mockery. To think that we are a herding people. Let us take the situation in cities and the small towns such as Clonmel, Tipperary, Carrick-on-Suir, Cashel and all the rest. Mrs. Mary O'Gorman, who is in her 80th year, is the aon duine amháin, the only person living on O'Connell Street in Clonmel. It used to be a busy, bustling business street but it was also a living town for many families. There is only one person left living on the street. All the buildings are empty, whether upstairs, downstairs or whatever. Many of the shopfronts are empty too. We have been talking about doing something with those schemes and centres for so long. Talk will not sort this out and neither will these plans or announcements.

I understand the plan was delayed several times because of ideological disagreements. There is no longer any ideological difference between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. They are all the one - joined at the hip. Fadó, fadó, there were arguments outside church gates and speakers at podiums. I remember the goings-on at election time and everything else. Now they are all the one.

The Government needs to start listening to the people and to have compassion but, above allow, it needs to allow people who have a site and can build a house to do so. Then it needs to make building a house affordable. It is not affordable. The prices are going up by the hour. There are no apprenticeships. All the apprentices who are out on sites at the moment will be going back into college. Who will be left to do the work? There is no one there. Many of the non-nationals have left and gone home. There are fundamental problems. This Housing for All plan will not deliver. It is more likely to be housing for none. A fundamental change is needed.

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