Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion. It is, however, Groundhog Day. How much longer must people wait before they can see any tangible progress on the delivery of social and affordable housing? How much longer are young people to be excluded from living in their rural areas thanks to the frankly stupid planning system which operates in this country? How much longer are rents going to take an absolutely disgraceful amount from the salaries and wages of ordinary people who are already hard pressed?

In the brief time I have to speak, I want to deal with the absolute scandal which has emerged in recent days thanks to the reporting of Gary Kavanagh at Gript media. I am referring to the vacant home grant scheme. In his investigation into this matter, Gary Kavanagh has shown that, due to a dispute between the Government and the banks, only one applicant for the vacant property grant, where €50,000 to €70,000 was promised to renovate vacant or derelict property, received any grant money in the scheme's first nine months of operation. This effectively means the key plank of the Government's housing policy has proven itself to be absolutely worthless for the better part of an entire year, which time was entirely wasted.

During that time, however, the Minister, and indeed all of those in government, never stopped in their praise of the scheme as a key policy aimed at increasing the available housing stock. At no point, it seems, did the Minister, or any other member of Government highlight that fact to ordinary people, that their ability to actually draw down the money from the vacant home grant was next to impossible thanks to the dispute between the Government and the banks. The banks were unwilling to provide mortgages on the basis of the scheme's tough terms and conditions. I will end on that note.

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