Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this plan, which will offer more people a chance of getting a home in which to live. The sooner it gets off the ground and starts delivering, the better. I would like more attention to be given to the yawning gap, which is getting wider, between groups of people trying to do just that. On the one side are those who can hope to get a house, either by buying one privately, if they can afford to, or securing a social house from their local authority or from an AHB. On the other side, an increasing number of couples, families and individuals who can never hope to get a mortgage from the bank because they are not earning enough but who will never get a social house because their earnings are considered too high. The numbers are starting to shoot up. The problem is becoming particularly acute in Galway where "For Sale" signs are only up for a few weeks before being replaced by "Sold" signs, such is the demand, which is also pushing up prices by the week. New construction has a long way to go to fill the gaps in supply. That means that a considerable number of people are finding themselves falling into the category where their only hope now is an affordable house while they are, all the while, paying huge rents.

Thankfully, the building of social housing is at last picking up pace, though perhaps not as quickly as we might like. However, the number of affordable houses being built is pathetically small. I would like a special effort to be made by the Government to ensure it catches up. In that regard, I urge that more developments put a greater emphasis on the provision of affordable housing where the need is increasing by the day. There is, for instance, a new development planned by Galway County Council on a seven-acre site close to Claregalway where it is proposed to build 45 social houses in the first phase and 45 affordable houses in the second. The work is unlikely to start until next summer and it will probably be years before the second phase will be completed. I urge that the entire development be dedicated to affordable housing so that those families caught in the middle can be offered some hope.

The number of calls to my office has increased by approximately 200% over the past six or seven months from people looking for affordable housing. These people want to buy and live in their own houses. There needs to be considerable emphasis on providing more affordable housing.

The Regional Independent Group had a great meeting with the Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform this morning. We put forward a plan or proposal for cluster developments for elderly people who want to downsize. These are for people who voluntarily want to downsize and want to buy a house. In Claregalway, we put a plan together a number of years ago and, with the help of a local landowner who gave us approximately seven acres of land free of charge, we were able to build 12 independent, two-bedroom, live-in units with support from the Department with responsibility for housing. We also built a day care centre in the middle of the development with the support of the Department of Health. There was a great team involved, including Seamus McNulty, Tom McGann and Geraldine Carr. They managed the facility. I invite the Minister to come and look at it. People often approach me who want to get into that facility. They want to be able to use it and want to sell, downsize and have a bit of capital in their bank accounts so they can go on holidays. We need to start looking at that solution around the country.

Other Deputies mentioned rural housing. We must ensure that we can still build once-off rural housing. I refer to areas in my constituency such as Turloughmore, Clarinbridge, Annaghdown and Corrandulla. If a rule was put in place that people had to move to the nearest town or village and building could not take place in the countryside, people from those areas would move to Tuam, Athenry or Claregalway. It would kill the rural community. We must retain the option of one-off rural housing. I am delighted to see in the draft county development plan in Galway a proposal to bring in cluster developments. That is important. It would either be a family cluster development or a community cluster development where three or four houses would be built together with one access route onto the road. It is crucial that we continue to build in the countryside.

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