Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish the Minister and Minister of State well. It is a mammoth task. We have to get real. The idea of the left here is that we cannot have private contractors or developers. If we do not have private developers involved, we will not build the houses, full stop. I would love to be back in the 1940s and 1950s when the county council had manpower and built the houses, but those days are gone. We have to get over these ideologies, stop objecting to housing being built and encourage the voluntary sector. I am a member of Caislean Nua Voluntary Housing Association. It is the proudest thing I was ever involved in. We built 17 houses. That is not many but it was a voluntary committee. If every village and hamlet built ten, we would halve the housing crisis. Then we could deal with immigration. At least Deputy O'Gorman is gone from his post as Minister. He sent out a tweet in 13 different languages to invite all and sundry into Ireland. We are great. We cannot house our own. We can spend €426,000 per unit for modular homes for Ukrainians in Clonmel. It is a shocking indictment on the previous Government. Hopefully this Government will change that. They are not worth €100,000. Someone is making a lot of money behind the scenes and it smells very much like corruption.

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