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

It is absolutely sickening to listen to what is going on here. Both sides are pontificating as to what they are doing and what they are going to do, while poor people are worried that they will not have a roof over their heads. The Government says that it is doing enough and that it will do more, but it is not doing enough. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have been in power one way or another now for the past 12 years, but why are they not funding the 171 voids in Kerry? I have been asked several times about it. The Government is not building enough quickly enough. It takes two years to do the paperwork for a housing scheme and it takes only a year to build the houses. That is long enough. There are no incentives for house owners. I am not calling them landlords because that is an old English word and we hated what the landlords did to people. There are no incentives for house owners to stay in the renting market. They are being taxed at 52%. What about people with vacant houses? There are 25 vacant houses very close to my door and the owners will not rent them out to anyone because they are afraid they will never again get them back with the way the laws are at the moment. If you pay for and own a house, it should be your fundamental right to do whatever you want with it, including if you want to sell it or want to do something else with it.

Extending this ban will not increase housing supply by one unit or help anyone. It is only kicking the can down the road. To solve the crisis the Government must build more houses and increase supply. There are blockages in planning, sewerage systems and water supply.

I will say one other thing. We have been attacked over the airwaves on Radio Kerry by Deputy Daly telling us what way to vote. When I want advice from Deputy Daly I will ask him for it, but I will see after the people in Kerry in my own way without his direction or-----

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