Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Thank you very much, a Cheann Comhairle.

We welcome the motion. To be fair, I do not doubt that the Minister is doing his best. It would be good if we could take some of the heat out of this debate because it has become quite personalised of late. I know we all have to robustly defend our positions in this House. That is right and proper. However, the personalised nature of the debate does not give comfort to the people who are on the housing list in my constituency. If I was to characterise their experience at present, it is such that, historically, if you were on a housing list you were applying for a house from a rented house or a family home and you had a guarantee of a roof over your head. Increasingly, however, we, as public representatives, are seeing more and more people coming to us in desperation because they are being forced out of accommodation through a notice to quit and they have absolutely no place to go due to the lack of supply. That is acknowledged. I do not want to politicise this debate. I acknowledge the fact that the Government is seeking to do what it can through the Housing for All policy.

One of my worries is as follows. Let us take a town like Mitchelstown in County Cork. It is a typical rural town that has an agricultural hinterland. There is a phenomenal demand for housing in Mitchelstown and there is also a capacity to build houses. In spite of the pent-up demand that exists, however, there is a major issue in terms of the ability to provide essential services such as water and waste water treatment facilities. For a couple of years, my constituency colleagues and I have all advocated for an increase in capacity for water and waste water services because, as we speak, we cannot build houses in the town of Mitchelstown because Irish Water will tell the local authority that the capacity is not there. It is all well and good for us to talk about the supply that is coming on stream now. Lands are being zoned in county development plans and we are seeing, theoretically, wonderful opportunities emerging on the horizon, but the pinch point is the fact that if we do not have the capacity to deliver basic infrastructure, such as is the case in Mitchelstown, then the policy fails.

Until such time as the nettle is grasped on that issue, I suspect that towns like Mitchelstown and my native town of Mallow, where there is a strategic housing development application for 299 residential units before An Bord Pleanála with a decision date due for 23 May, will fail to provide sufficient housing. In the event that the planning permission is granted, I guarantee that Irish Water and the local authority will turn around and say that the planning may have been received but the commencement will not be given until such time as there is capacity to deal with water and infrastructure. If those issues were dealt with as a top priority the Minister could pick off a lot of low-hanging fruit. He knows that anyway. I know for a fact that he is very much aware of the infrastructural issues relating to Mitchelstown in particular. I understand that he might visit the town in the not-too-distant future. I ask him to use his good offices to lean in to Irish Water. If some capacity was delivered in Mitchelstown, it would have a tremendous effect, as it would throughout the country.

We support the motion put forward by Sinn Féin. In the few short minutes remaining, I would like to speak about the tenant in situscheme advocated by the Labour Party. I urge that we lift the cap on the ability of local authorities to purchase when there is a HAP or RAS - some people are still on the latter scheme - supported tenant in situ. The limit on local authorities' buying second-hand homes and competing with first-time buyers is having consequences whereby people who are getting social housing support through HAP are then being evicted by smaller landlords who are leaving the housing market. That has been well signalled to the Minister. Because of these limits, there is an unintended consequence of forcing people who require social housing support into homelessness. That is what I spoke about at the top of my intervention here tonight. I ask the Minister to look at greater flexibility around a tenant in situscheme and to allow local authorities to purchase housing where there is a tenant in situgetting social housing support. I am sure the Minister will have an answer to that. I would welcome a reply. If he is favourable to that, it would be good.

The other point I wish to raise relates to the Croí Cónaithe scheme. If the Minister is responding to the debate-----

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