Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise again Francis Street development in Ennis. These are the six houses that were purchased with a view to knocking them down and eventually building a mixed-use development. On 23 March last year, I raised the matter with the leader of Fianna Fáil, the Tánaiste, Deputy Micheál Martin, who stated: "we should be making those houses fit for habitation and allocate them because development of the kind the Deputy mentioned will take a long time." Nevertheless, in March of this year, the day before a challenge to those plans was to be heard in the High Court, the houses were demolished by the council. Yesterday, the council held a meeting and stated that it would be three years before there would be shovels in the ground. The people who would otherwise be in those houses - including a three-bedroom house built less than 30 years ago - can look at fancy bollards paid for with their own taxpayer's money promising something into the future. Is the housing crisis over? Are these executives accountable to anybody or do they operate like sun gods in their own little realm?

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