Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Independent)

Like the previous speaker, I support this Sinn Féin motion. The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, in its report last October, stated that there are obvious areas where Ireland's infrastructure is much underdeveloped. The key areas to which it referred were housing, health, transport and electricity. It stated that when one compares Ireland's infrastructure with that of other high-income European countries, one discovers that our infrastructure is 25% lower than average for a high-income country. The world competitiveness ranking places Ireland poorly for infrastructure provision, particularly basic infrastructure, including that relating to water and energy.

Electricity supply and grid stability are real concerns. In this area, data centres are by far the most demanding. EirGrid, in its 2024 ten-year forecast, stated that 89% of the growth in the total electricity that will be needed in the next decade is attributable to data centres. They currently consume one fifth of Ireland's electricity. It is projected that they will use one third in the next few years. The Commission for Regulation of Utilities has warned that data centres pose a risk to increased housing delivery due to constraints on the electricity grid.

Last March, the chairman of Irish Water said that the State's water and sewerage systems "are in a desperate state" because of "extraordinary complacency" and "passive indifference". Uisce Éireann has said that meeting the Government's revised housing targets would require a significant increase in capital funding above its current programme to increase water and wastewater capacity in urban and rural areas. The Irish Home Builders Association has repeatedly warned that the electricity grid, drinking water, wastewater capacity and connections are a constraint on housing delivery. All of this feeds into the fact that a housing emergency exists in this State. Every TD in the Dáil, Government or Opposition, knows that. The housing emergency continues to undermine the very fabric of Irish society. To address the housing and homelessness crisis, we need a declaration of a housing emergency in law. Last year's Housing Commission report set out the situation starkly by stating, "Only a radical reset of housing policy will work." It went on to state, "It is critical that this housing deficit is addressed through emergency action." Emergency measures are provided for in Article 43.2.2° of our Constitution, Bunreacht na hÉireann. There is precedent in the financial emergency measures in the public interest legislation between 2011 and 2016. Any housing plan, including a housing activation office, can only be successful if it is governed by the declaration in law of a housing emergency and given emergency powers underpinned by legislation.

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