John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)

It is my strong belief that all stakeholders responsible for delivering houses are not on the same page and do not share the one ambition. In this case, I separate out the banks. It is almost impossible for young people seeking their first mortgage to get a mortgage from the bank to build their own house or to purchase one. The mortgage approval rate may be high and may look impressive but when you look at the figures, there are the numbers drawing down mortgages and those just waiting because they have not been approved for enough or cannot afford it. The banks need to come up with various financial packages and mortgages to enable those who want to draw down a mortgage and to make it possible for them in respect of the amount and so on.

Likewise, insurance companies have placed many difficulties in front of those seeking a mortgage, particularly those who may have had health issues in the past. They are being told they cannot get mortgage protection and are not given any other options; that is it for them. This needs to be reviewed.

The whole planning process regarding accommodation needs to be relaxed. When it comes to right-sizing in local authority housing, there are too many people waiting for a right-size to get a house that is smaller than the one they are in and for that house to then accommodate a family. This is not happening at any great speed and needs to be looked at by the Minister, Deputy Browne, and the various chief executives of the local authorities.

The biggest problem here - I have heard it from other Members - is Irish Water. I know many towns and villages throughout counties Carlow and Kilkenny that simply do not have the facilities to enable planning permission to be given because Irish Water will object and say it does not have the services there. This issue exists in every single county and needs to be addressed immediately. It is only by way of ministerial intervention that we will see any change in this area. I say to the councils around the country: for god's sake, do something to act as proper managers of your tenants. At present, there is no management and there are people in flats or apartments or groups of houses who are experiencing the sale of drugs on a daily basis, the abuse of their rights as a tenant or antisocial behaviour. It is shocking that tenants are forced to continue to live like this when the local authority, which is the landlord in this case, is not facilitating a proper standard within its own housing stock. I ask that this be part of the review of the activities of local authorities.

The small solution of selling a big house, if you own it, and building a smaller house to accommodate a different family structure needs to be looked at. In many of county development plans, if you build in one area, you are not entitled to build again. Yet, if you were allowed to build, you would downsize and make another house available to the market. It is that simple. All the stakeholders should be brought to the table to hear what all of us have had to say and they should be asked to do something about participating in the project fully.

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