Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

What the Housing Commission report states is that we do not need more of the same. While the Minister and the Government continue with the back-slapping, I want to explain why their housing plan is not working in Mayo. Last year, less than half of the target for newly built social and affordable housing in Mayo was delivered. That has devastating consequences for the county. A woman with spina bifida and other health issues is living in her mother's house in Ballinrobe. She is forced, along with her partner and their two-year-old son, to live in her mother's sitting room because there are four others in a three-bedroom house. All are sharing communal areas that include one bathroom and one kitchen. The family has been on the Mayo County Council housing list, as an emergency case, for the past two years.

Another woman and her adult son, who has severe autism, have the support of a multidisciplinary HSE team but have no space in their council property for this young man. They have no space to give him the treatment. There are four children in the house. The reality is that the young man cannot receive the services he needs as the home is not suitable. The HSE has advised that the young man and his family are a high priority for rehousing and yet they have waited for five years. We are dealing with the scars of the housing crisis in Mayo. We need positive change,and a Sinn Féin Government to deliver it.

My colleague Deputy Mac Lochlainn talked about the defective block scheme. The Minister must not have listened to us in committee in recent weeks as we examined the issue. There are enormous gaps even as the Minister tells the people affected that 100% redress is available. It is nowhere near 100% redress. People cannot afford to get onto the scheme. There are gaps of €100,000 or more that people cannot fulfil. Nobody could answer my question as to whether people should go ahead and rebuild their houses without having the foundations tested. There is no funding whatsoever for foundations. Time and again, we have given the Minister the solutions required to amend the scheme to make it affordable and accessible for everybody but he is not listening. I plead with him again to please listen. The solutions have come from the homeowners in Mayo, Donegal and the other impacted counties.

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