Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This young generation of Irish people is being failed by Government. They are being failed by the lack of affordable housing and constant barriers to planning permission when they try to build houses on their own land and are impeded. It is very unfair. It is a no-win situation for young people in particular. We need to see change. My point today is really to draw the Minister of State's attention to the fact that we have approved housing bodies, AHBs. I have raised issues with regard to these approved housing bodies. During an oral Priority Question to the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, recently, he revealed that Government had invested €500 million in the AHB sector last year alone.

I also know from another parliamentary reply that currently there are 495 approved housing bodies listed in the Department's register. Questions need to be asked. If there are 495 approved housing bodies and we still have a housing emergency that is getting progressively worse, it is high time questions are asked. We have to do this in order to move forward. I wonder whether it is becoming like the bloated NGO sector. Some 30,000 NGOs are funded to the tune of €5.2 billion and there is considerable duplication. Taxpayers' money is thrown around like confetti. It is not good enough and needs to be called out.

Where is the value for money? I understand that a new strengthened regulatory regime for the approved housing bodies has been put in place and that the Approved Housing Bodies Regulatory Authority, AHBRA, will seek to encourage and facilitate better governance, administration and management, including corporate governance and financial management of this sector. Will the Minister of State clarify when he expects the AHBRA to produce its first report? Something is very wrong here. It is very serious. I am not convinced that we need more approved housing bodies to remedy the problems that exist. It is clearly not working.

Only a handful of individual houses are delivered when we need huge schemes delivered. The housing body, Respond, received €245 million from 2016 to 2021 and it is unable to replace the windows and doors in a small estate with 26 houses and apartments. The windows and doors are 20 years old or more. There is much talk about energy efficiency yet we are seeing people being failed. Respond has not replaced them. Where is all this money going? Can we please put the money where our mouths are in terms of Government policy and energy efficiency? What is going on here? Can the approved housing body, Respond, not be called out to replace these windows and doors in Chesterfield Close estate in Birr in County Offaly?

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