John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I raise an issue with the accommodation being provided for the Ukrainian people who are coming here. The majority of it is up to standard but there is a significant number of locations where the accommodation falls well short of standards we could be proud of. I ask the Minister of State to look in particular at a location in Carlow and some locations in Kilkenny. It is reported the accommodation at these locations is mainly occupied by women and children but they are sharing it with men. There are poor facilities, few controls and little supervision. I ask the Minister of State to examine that as a matter of urgency. It was reported today on our local radio and in the local paper.

The ambition the Minister has for fulfilling the policies and dealing with the issue of housing does not seem to be shared by local authorities. They fall far short of what their performance should or could be and there are a number of areas I can point to on that. In County Carlow, a housing estate that has been constructed is currently having to go for planning permission again and it has been suggested to the new developer that he would have to demolish 14 houses to complete the site. How does the Minister of State justify that in the face of a housing crisis? What kind of headline does that set for those who are looking for houses and want to get off the streets, off a sofa or get in some way onto the housing ladder? A housing site has been zoned in Kilkenny to take, say, 100 houses and 50 are complete with infrastructure there to take 100. A road was completed and handed to Kilkenny County Council and now it has dezoned that land and, therefore, the site cannot be completed. Those living on the half of the site that is completed and occupied are now demanding that the part of estate yet to be completed be given planning permission and moved ahead. Those are just two examples of the disconnect between the Minister's ambition and the local authority in question.

Small changes could be made. There was a successful social housing programme in years when we could not afford it. The councils took charge of it, they built the houses and they were responsible for procurement. However, nowadays you have to go to the council for everything. If you are transferring from one house to the other you have to get permission. The council has to get permission to refurbish that house due to the cost and so on. There are many other blockages of red tape and bureaucracy that could easily be removed if the council was given the permission to fulfil its own needs. Councils are the holders of all the information on all the types of houses that are needed. As other speakers have indicated is the case in other areas, a person cannot get a four-bedroom house from the local authority in Kilkenny and, therefore, the housing needs of that cohort cannot be fulfilled. The planning of all this needs to be streamlined. The Minister of State needs to give direction on the planning process and the delivery of these houses.

The An Bord Pleanála scandal has not helped us, nor has the 10% levy or the fact that there illegal quarries that we may yet have to pay for because they are continuing to supply materials through the chain of delivery for the construction of houses and roads. That needs to be examined. I ask the Minister of State to look at these issues carefully and bring forward some sort of plan that will resolve it.

Last of all, Irish Water continues to be a blocker of all developments. It is preventing houses from being delivered in Bennettsbridge, Gowran, Paulstown and other villages in County Kilkenny.

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