Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish the three Ministers well in their new portfolios. I welcome this morning's announcement on modular homes and log cabins but there is one thing I cannot fathom. I hear it is 40 sq. m. The modular homes being built at the moment are 600 sq. ft, which is 60 sq. m. I do not know why it is 20 sq. m less but I still welcome it because it is going to help people. Let us give praise when praise is due.

The planning situation needs to be tackled. An emergency should be called because objections are holding up many planning permissions. I ask the Minister to look at that. I also ask him to look at one-off housing because councils are so inconsistent. I was talking to a person in Sligo this morning and apparently Sligo is nearly a no-go area. I have also been talking to people in Leitrim and other counties. I welcome the Croí Cónaithe scheme. It is helping a lot of people. However, there are inconsistencies between councils. I will give an example. I know a person whose chimney was cracked in their old two-storey house. They took it down and put up slates. They then could not get an exemption because they had taken down the chimney. What madness is going on in the planning sections of councils? I ask the Ministers to address that. As the Ministers know well, in building houses, sewage and water are ferociously important.

I will ask the Ministers to do one thing. I have brought this up a number of times. If a builder is building 100 houses in the private sector but has not done a State job in the last three years, they cannot tender. That is total madness within the Department from whoever wrote that rule. You could be building 100 private houses but still cannot tender for a public job. I ask the Ministers to look at that.

There is another thing that needs to be looked at within the Department. People give out about the councils. Yes, they can be slow at times. If someone dies and the house is being done up, there is damn all funding from the Department. If you are to bring the house up to the specifications introduced by the former Minister, Eamon Ryan, it will cost €60,000 to €80,000. What does the Department provide? It is €25,000 to €30,000. Do councils have money? No. Everyone is wondering why there are 3,000 to 4,000 houses that are lying idle and have not been done up, as was said earlier. It is because councils do not have the funding.

There is another thing the Ministers can do. The Department brought out a good scheme under Deputy Darragh O'Brien. The scheme was for sewage schemes in areas where there was no Irish Water infrastructure. Not one has been done in three years. Why is that? It is because it must be done to Irish Water specifications and you have to go back to the councils. It goes over and back. The Ministers' Department gave a budget for works throughout the country but not one red cent has been spent within those towns that need sewage schemes to help in providing water.

I ask the Ministers to look at those few fundamental things. On top of that, an emergency should be called with regard to social and affordable housing. As has been said earlier, there are many councils that do not even know about the affordable housing schemes. They need to be brought in for a day to be told how they operate. If that does not happen, it will not be done. This is not about criticising but about throwing in ideas and trying to work together. We can come in here and argue every day but what we need to do is to try to put in ideas that will work to solve this problem. I ask the Ministers to listen to the ideas I have given them and to take them on board.

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