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

The tenant purchase scheme was a great scheme. People got their feet under them and went down the road of purchasing their own home, and the money went back into the coffers and built more houses. Now councils have stopped that; any house built after 2015, they will not even sell it. We were so proud when people used to get rural cottages. It was the same story - when they got their legs under them, they bought them out and the money went back to the State. We have so many schemes now, like the mortgage-to-rent scheme, and approved housing bodies are building houses. Grand, we welcome them but there is no place for people who want to build or buy a house for themselves. They cannot get planning in any town.

Many towns have no sewerage schemes. There are 38 settlements without proper treatment plants - some with none - in Kerry. I do not blame Irish Water. Where is it to get money if the Government does not provide it? It will meet no leprechaun and it needs the money to further our settlements and water schemes, but it is not happening.

Small builders cannot and will not survive because they now have to carry the full cost of the house until it is finished and ready for the key to turn in the door. They cannot carry it and the banks will not support them or give them the loans to do that.

I have been asking for a long time, and the Tánaiste frowned at me when I asked it, that an allowance be given to our own people on the housing list and want to rent a house. They cannot get a council house or whatever. If you are a Ukrainian person, your house will be paid for by the State and €850 will be given to the landlord tax-free. I am not asking for it to be taken off them; I am asking for it to be given to our own people who have been on the list for so long and have no hope. Many people cannot get houses and if they are homeless, they will not be put into hotels. We do not even have a homeless centre in Killarney town; they have to go to Tralee. Children are rooted up out of their schools. That is not fair.

There are so many other things that I could talk for two hours without stopping about what is wrong with the housing situation. The Government is not making any headway.

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