Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I see around the county of Kerry from Tousist to Tarbert to Tureencahill and over to Ceann Trá the results, the problems and the fallout of current and previous Government policy over the past ten years. I see queues of 30 to 40 people seeking to rent a home. It is practically impossible to rent. Homelessness is on the increase. Vacant homes are not being turned around fast enough. Compulsory purchase orders to get housing back into use are practically non-existent. People are waiting on the housing list for 15 years. The decision to outsource social housing to the market ten years ago in tandem, I believe, with the abolition of the town councils of Tralee, Listowel and Killarney, was a disaster. I also see the lack of sewage treatment plants and wastewater treatment. In places like Glenbeigh, Castlegregory, Abbeydorney and Fenit people cannot build two houses together because of the lack of any water system.

At the other end, people cannot afford to purchase houses. It is hardly surprising when figures from the CSO tell us that house prices in the south-west region rose 15.4%. In 2020, house prices in Kerry increased more than in any other county. The daft.iereport paints a similar picture, with prices in Kerry up 7.5% for a one-bedroom apartment, 14.2% for a two-bedroom terraced house and 18.1% for a three-bed semi-detached house. As a result, in 2021 house prices in Kenmare and Dingle were up 10%, in Tralee they were up 15% and in Killarney they were up by a staggering 18.5%.

Government responses are overly reliant on a subsidy to developers, increasing inflation even before the current inflation crisis. The shared equity scheme should be abandoned. I know people who went into the last one and after 20 years they still only own half their home. A builder recently presented me with a folder of price increases from builders' providers with near monthly increases across the board from providers. In housing both finance and purchase, increasingly provided by private capital looking for a return, price increases are built into Government policy. Ordinary people are struggling, especially those who availed of the personal insolvency practitioners, PIPs, and who sold their homes in negative equity. They cannot avail of the fresh start scheme, which is only open to those who have availed of statutory insolvency schemes. Workers and families need proper solutions and I encourage everyone to support the motion.

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