Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)

Tá triúr cainteoirí againn agus tá ceithre nóiméad ag gach Teachta.

As far as I can see, everything is an emergency. The housing situation has been handled so badly for so long that it is now a crazy situation. The Members from Independent Ireland - so called Saor Éire, the freedom fighters - talked a few weeks ago about 100% mortgages. Who can take them seriously? They got detached tonight from their leader, Mary Lou McDonald. For the past few months since the election, they have been clucking around after her and under her umbrella as if she were a hatching hen. However, there must have been a split in the camp. They have gone back to where they were.

There are many issues, and Irish Water has been mentioned. The infrastructure is not there. This morning, the ESRI made a statement. The situation is chronic. Many villages and small towns do not have the capacity to build water treatment plants. In many cases where there are developer-built plants, there are issues with councils taking them in charge. I know they can and will provide the infrastructure, and will do so fast. Deputy O'Donoghue mentioned something, and I support him on it. We should separate the foul water from the sewer water. We have immense pressure on our septic tanks and sewerage systems. We cannot have the rainwater going into that and putting huge pressure on it. That is a no-brainer. What is needed is simple to do, especially with new developments, but it could also be done with many old developments.

The Minister floated an idea some time ago which gave great hope to people who live in cabins and behind houses in different areas. Something meaningful needs to be done about this. He knows and I know that there are hundreds of these cabins in his constituency and in mine. There are thousands throughout the country. They are one of the prongs to sort out the crisis that exists. They are very suitable as starter homes or whatever, and they are fine.

As Deputy Lawless mentioned, immigration has a massive impact on housing. I know we need nurses and doctors, and many of them do a great job in our hospitals. However, we must face the elephant in the room. I refer to the fact that the huge immigration is adding major pressure, but we are not going to talk about it. We are the great saviours of Europe. We can bring everybody in and find homes for them. Roderic O'Gorman told them all they would have their own front doors in 12 weeks if they came. He sent out a tweet in 13 or 14 languages. In the name of God, when are we going to get real and look after our own. We have a Taoiseach who travels the world and talks about the world's problems, but he is forgetting about the problems here. Looking after our people here first is his fundamental duty under Bunreacht na hÉireann.

Dundrum House hotel in Tipperary has been made into an IPAS centre despite the local people there protesting about this for more than 12 months. We were called to a meeting last night by the county manager to say the council, had erred in granting a section 5 exemption to a greedy, shabby, shoddy developer with a company brought in from Spain with declared capital of €120. We now we find it has all fallen on a heap of brus. A local group rightly took a judicial review, and now the council has had to cave in and say it erred in granting a section 5 exemption. What is going to happen? Will that contract be declared null and void? It should be declared null and void. It is null and void because it was granted under false pretences.

We have people before the courts, including Seán Meehan who is facing jail because of his situation with a log cabin. There are rogue developers who have no interest in humanitarian issues. They are interested in filling their pockets, making them fatter and destroying a village like Dundrum in County Tipperary which has a population of 200 by giving approval for an IPAS centre for 277 people, an illegal development that the council was told it was illegal. The fire officer had the cheek to tell us yesterday that he never visited the site once in the previous 12 months. That is the type of blackguarding you are going on with here. You need to get real.

See this speech in context