Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Government seems to be going around in circles talking. Practical things should be done, such as reintroducing the first-time buyers and builders grant scheme. This scheme was scrapped by Fianna Fáil and the Green Party when it was in government from 2007 to 2011. Fine Gael and Labour failed to reintroduce the scheme. Now is the time to reintroduce it and to provide grant aid directly to the young people who wish to build or buy a home for themselves. This scheme could help young people in rural areas in places such as County Kerry, where I am from, to proceed to build a home on their own land.

However, for the scheme to work, a grant-aid package has to be made available to qualifying applicants.

The Government seems to make a mess of the whole housing issue continuously. My clinics in the Dingle area on Monday night, held over seven and a half hours, were predominantly taken up by the issue of housing. Attendees wanted a house to buy or rent or to get a local authority home. Quite simply, they cannot get one. Since the area is nice and a beautiful part of the world, it is increasingly difficult to get planning permission on one's own land. Surely to God we should be able to allow those with a site to build on it because they are doing it for themselves. Look at how badly we have let people down because our local authority housing programme is so weak.

I thank, as I always do, the staff in the housing department in Kerry County Council. They are excellent, from the director of services down to those working in every sector. If given enough money, they will take care of housing in County Kerry.

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