Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I, too, support the motion today, and not because I am fan of the hard left or People Before Profit-Solidarity. The Government has led itself into a disastrous situation. It has gone down a cul-de-sac and will not build public houses. It will not allow people to build houses on their own land in the country. It was not this Government but a previous Fine Gael Government that closed down all the bedsits. It is a mess that the Government has created and it is getting bigger by the day. People are being threatened. Since the eviction ban was lifted last April, almost 6,000 people have received notices to quit. There has been a flood. We told the Government that would happen. That is why we voted against the Government's measures. We did not want to throw people out on the road.

Certainly, we have to have a balance. We do not have a balance. There is a 52% tax on homeowners, as I call them, not landlords. I am not talking about the big landlords who own hundreds of units. I am talking about the ordinary people who have houses they might let, as Deputy Danny Healy-Rae said, but they will not because of the 52% tax and because the RTB and other agencies are siding with the tenants all the time. They should be out there sourcing and doing deals, as Deputy Healy-Rae said, and getting more vacant houses for people that can be turned around. As I understand it, in Northern Ireland the local authority has 12 weeks to re-let the house after the tenant hands in the keys. What is wrong here? Sure the canteen here has been closed since July and we cannot even get it open to feed the staff and the Members here. We cannot even do that much in this House, so how are we going to build houses? The people have lost faith in the Government completely because it has failed. The Government brought in the new building energy regulation certificate and all these separate regulations, and it put up the price of concrete. Everyone knows that the Government obviously does not want to build the houses, because of the actions it is taking. The decision to put up the price of concrete was a daft one to take in the middle of a housing crisis. The Government has lost its way. It is in a cul-de-sacand it needs to open its eyes and listen to the people.

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