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

The Housing for All initiative is evidently not meeting its goals. Homelessness has reached unprecedented levels. I am very worried because the presence of even a single homeless individual is a national embarrassment, yet the Government seems complacent about the nearly 14,000 people, including 4,000 children, who are currently without homes. Since the launch of Housing for All, homelessness has surged by 60%. In case the Sinn Féin hurlers on the ditch who previously accused me of not declaring an interest in housing do so again, it is a common and well-known fact that I am involved in the provision of homes of different types for all the different sectors of society. I want to put that on the record.

When it comes to dealing with housing, there are simple things that I would not fight with the Minister of State about. The building of single rural cottages, which is what we always called them, on family farms was always a great way of taking care of not just of one generation but the next generation of that family's housing need. We are not doing that any more. We are not building single rural cottages in the numbers we used to, when there was no money in the country in the seventies, eighties and early nineties. Our local authorities were very well equipped to do that. While I mention local authorities, I thank very sincerely the housing staff of Kerry County Council, from the director down to the other officials, the people on the ground, including individual housing officers, investigating officers and those dealing with homeless people in County Kerry, who all do an excellent job. I will continuously tell the Minister of State to give them more resources.

The Minister of State refers to vacant local authority houses as voids. I call them empty houses. Over the past number of months of canvassing with the different candidates I am supporting in County Kerry, I see the massive number of houses that are empty. It is disgraceful. They should be brought back into use immediately.

See this speech in context