Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As my colleagues have said, Sinn Féin has no issue and neither does the AHB sector with the proposed changes to the registration regime. While we are not opposed to the operation of cost rental, we do not believe the changes go far enough. We have some concerns, which we will deal with.

I raised the issue of housing adaptation grants with the Minister of State in the past while. We welcome the fact that the maximum housing adaptation grant for older people and those with a disability has gone from €30,000 to €40,000 while there has been an increase in thresholds. There has been an increase in housing aid for older people, which has gone from €8,000 to €10,700. The mobility aid grant has gone from €6,000 to €8,000. This was necessary. Nobody would say it was not. It was beyond time it was done. However, we also recognise that the review process takes far too long. In particular, that kind of money will still not be able to deliver for those families dealing with children with mobility issues who are getting older. We have all dealt with issues like that so we need a conversation between the Department and the HSE to deal with some of these bespoke solutions. This is welcome. We just need it to happen as soon as possible. I am aware of issues facing some families where this will not cut the mustard. If you had 20 minutes, you could spend the entirety of them talking about disabilities and housing. Whatever work has been done, there is a lot more to do.

Many have spoken about Irish Water and capacity issues. I could speak about brown water in Dundalk and the need to see the pilot scheme. We know there are particular issues in getting rid of surface water. I do not necessarily believe the capacity in the system exists. Heavy rain could mean disaster for areas like Dundalk. There are wider issues. I believe I will be coming back in here within the next while to talk about how it is affecting a significant number of possible builds and planning permissions. This is a significant issue relating to Irish Water and capacity.

I have been over and back with the Minister about Cois Farraige and affordable housing. I said previously that Cois Farraige offered an affordable house at €305,000 in Dundalk. I do not accept that this is affordable. Only five out of the ten offerings were taken up. There has been an over and back. There is an issue regarding criteria and the Minister accepted that there are timing issues. All this needs to be looked at.

We all know the issues ranging from not enough council houses to not enough cost rental and we know rents are through the roof. Until something is done, we will be dealing with a significant number of people in dreadful situations. We can talk about housing and homelessness but we are nowhere near a solution.

See this speech in context