Michael Collins (Cork South-West, Independent Ireland Party)

If we got a euro for every time we spoke about housing since I came to Dáil Éireann, we would have a hell of a lot of houses built. We have a massive problem. We know that. I cannot understand why Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Sinn Féin, the Social Democrats and Labour have thrown out figures for delivery of housing which they know they can never deliver. Go down to my patch in West Cork and you cannot build a house there. Not one house in Dunmanway. Imagine. It is an astonishing situation. I would love the Minister of State to come down and see the problem. Raw sewage is pouring into the local watercourses. The EPA does not give a damn, nor does Uisce Éireann or anyone else. They are all telling us they might do something in 2030, 2035 or 2040 and kicking the can down the road. Shannon Vale, Ballydehob, Rosscarbery and Goleen are 25 or 30 years with raw sewage pouring out all over the place. We have wastewater treatment plants bursting at the seams while the Government stands idly by and does not accept that there is a crisis.

Independent Ireland did not put false figures before the people. Nor did we say that we would deliver a certain number of houses. What we said was that we wanted to deal with the housing emergency. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael do not want to mention the emergency because it is an embarrassment, but it is an emergency. Instead, they want to give some tsar €430,000 to talk us further into the hole we are in. They promised the people log cabins a number of months ago but they have not moved one millimetre on that. Maybe I am wrong. I hope the Minister of State has a report on that today. I would be delighted and would welcome that. Young people would live anywhere; in log cabins, mobile homes or caravans. That is the crisis we are in. There are 15,000 people without homes, there are children without homes and there are serial objectors. If there is a serial objector to a wastewater treatment plant and there is a fish kill, that individual has to be held personally responsible. Government Members have to stand up to these people. If they do not, they are kicking the can down the road the same as they are doing with rural planning. Young people are trying to pay for houses but cannot do so. That has to change.

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