Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We have been in here for the past two and a half years doing everything we can to be constructive and encourage the Minister and Department to deliver housing as quickly as possible. That is the way we want to come at things but I have concerns about this.

To touch on a point Deputy O’Callaghan made, I come from Knocknaheeny. It is a huge regeneration project. Whether it is Knocknaheeny, Moyross or Ballymun, hundreds of millions are being spent on the regeneration of communities that were badly designed at the start. They had no playgrounds, play areas or community centres. It was bad planning. It is not just those areas. Mayfield, the Glen and Togher also had to be regenerated. The services went in afterwards, sometimes years later. That is why we are concerned when the public consultation side and the feedback from the community is taken out.

Last week there was a meeting in Cork between city council officials and residents about a new social housing development that is being planned. There are sitting down with the local community to deliver the best scheme possible. That is what we want. The Minister wants that and we all want it. There are concerns. I spoke to councillors today in Cork who were on to me and who are concerned about this because we cannot make any more mistakes when it comes to people's lives. The consequences for communities and the people who live there can be life changing. We want to deliver housing and be supportive but we have serious concerns about the safeguards that are here. From talking to officials, I gather this was not a priority for delivering houses faster.

If the Minister does a survey of all the 31 local authority chief executives or managers, I do not think he will find this would have been at the top of their agenda. While we are not opposed to what the Minister is trying to achieve, we have concerns about the consequences of the lack of public consultation.

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