Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Canney for raising these matters. The Government wants to remove any barrier that exists to the development of housing and housing schemes, such as the Deputy has indicated. I am concerned when I hear Deputy Canney highlighting these important issues being perceived as barriers in his community. I am very eager to work with him and to work through the structures in Galway to see how we can address some of them. The issue of home ownership is the biggest issue of our time. It is an issue that has created intergenerational anxiety. It is not just young people worried about whether they will ever be able to buy a home but their mum, dad and grandparents worry too. We want to ease this intergenerational anxiety. We are now seeing building homes at levels not seen since 2008. We see 500 individuals or couples buying their first home each and every week. So far this year we have seen more than 350 homes commence to be constructed every working day. These are very encouraging figures and I say this from the point of view of hoping to be able to demonstrate to people that there are some encouraging signs from a housing supply point of view.

I thank Deputy Canney for his acknowledgement on social housing. Sometimes we come into this place and there is a suggestion no social housing is being provided. Deputy Canney is rightly saying that in his community and constituency he is seeing a significant level of social housing being provided. This tallies with the national figures. Last year saw the highest number of social housing units provided any time since the 1970s. Of the past 50 years last year had the highest number. However we have a lot more work to do and we need to be willing to listen to communities. We need to be willing to be more agile and responsive to issues as they arise in communities. With this in mind we have the Galway housing task force. It is being refocused under its new chairperson John McCarthy. I understand it is meeting quarterly. It has a strong work programme to tackle what it describes as Galway-specific issues. I believe it met as recently as yesterday and two more meetings are scheduled already, one for 6 September and one for 28 November. I will ask that the specific issues raised by Deputy Canney be fed into its consideration to see whether progress can be made. I know the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage stands ready to respond to any outcome from that task force.

With regard to the specific issue on wastewater, as Deputy Canney is aware Clarinbridge and Craughwell were successful in being approved for funding last December. It is a very successful scheme and I acknowledge the work done by the Minister Deputy O'Brien in bringing it forward. It was a clever idea to try to empower people locally to make progress on wastewater. It is very important that we see these projects being successful so we can then have a further phase of roll-out in the small villages specifically referenced by Deputy Canney.

There are now cost-rental projects approved in Galway city. This will see homes delivered on the Old Monivea Road at Ballybrit by Tuath next year. I will take on board the specific issues raised by Deputy Canney and I will ask the Galway housing task force to look at them in conjunction with the Department of housing and we will continue to liaise with him.

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