Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is a new Aire Stáit and I wish him well but something needs to be done. This is papering over the cracks. It is more of the same. I am not pointing at the gentlemen and ladies here - the officials - but the game is lost. The game with regard to housing is badly lost. Maybe the Minister of State is used to losing so he should not shake his head. I did not want to say that - that is why I started - but the game is lost. The Government has fundamentally lost its way. Since Fine Gael came into government in 2011 or 2012, we have had more reports and more Ministers for housing than I have had hot dinners. Deputy Bacik, who wants a second bike shed built after the cost of the first one, was going to build 1 million houses. The parties in Government, including Fianna Fáil, have lost it.

A group of people in my own village, An Caisleán Nua, got together after a terrible break in and the violent assault of a gentleman back in 1995. We got together and formed a voluntary housing association. We spoke to iar Theatha, Dr. Jerry Cowley, a good Mayo man. We built 17 houses in a short time, under budget and ahead of time. I mention the inability of councils to deliver big projects and the folly of talking about a public company to build houses, which will be another monster like Irish Water. It was the biggest monster that could ever have been created and it is the biggest block to any house being built in any village or hamlet because Irish Water has no sign of an investment plan. In my own village, we have raw sewage pumping into the river. It is ignored by the EPA which is a flawed, failed organisation because it will not tell the truth. It cannot tell the truth. Its wages are paid by the Government, so it is disgracefully vindictive against farmers and does not expose what it should, namely, the pollution by local authorities. My village was on a scheme and we saw the light at the end of the tunnel. Now we are not even on a scheme. There are hundreds, or I would say thousands, of villages around the country. I could bring the Minister of State to 30 villages where Irish Water will not allow a block to be put on a block because the capacity of what it calls a plant but what is it? It is a septic tank that you would put in an ordinary bungalow, catering for 350 houses. It is an insult to the word "plant" to call it that because it is not plants. It is a shocking situation. The Government has lost its way completely and the permanent government has lost its way too. Secretaries General are not held accountable at all. They do not answer to the people here. The Government has fundamentally and totally lost its way.

We will not get in the private builders until such time as a government is elected here that knows its way, and it is not being offered by the Opposition either. We need the private builders and the small- and medium-sized builders badly. We demonise them here every day of the week. I know a man in Cahir who is a wonderful builder. Irish Water is charging him telephone numbers to make a connection of 100 m to the sewerage scheme. It is daylight robbery. He has the initiative and enthusiasm. He is building 30 houses at the moment. He put his hand in his pocket and got a loan from the bank. He has the courage to do it and he is doing it. He has done schemes. He knows how to build, how to deal with the surveys, how to deal with subbies and how to pay his way, his taxes and his employees' taxes but Irish Water is holding him up and is trying to extort money. The money it is trying to get from him is extortion. The Government has lost its way completely. It is time it folded up its tent and took off.

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