Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)

I am glad to get the opportunity to talk about housing again. This is a crisis. Everyone recognises that it is a crisis. I am not one bit happy that landlords or homeowners are being blamed for what is happening in the rental sector. Every site seems to be pointing at people who own houses and are trying to rent them out. I point out that I do have no house only my own. There are many vacant houses. I have asked the Government before to halve the tax or do something with it, such as 50% tax for someone who gets €1,000 in rent for a house. So many houses are idle, and there is no incentive to rent them out. Then people are afraid that they will not get their houses back.

In regard to planning permission for those who wish to build their own houses, people in County Kerry have been left behind on this. We have been hard hit by the urban regeneration pressure clause that deprives many young fellows who are four or five miles outside the town. They cannot get permission to build their own houses. Killarney has been in a pressure zone for more than seven years. Houses there are terribly scarce and terribly expensive. I do not see how what is proposed is going to help the housing sector. We must build more houses. We need to give local authorities more autonomy to build more houses. Long ago, when people were homeless, a county council would bring in demountable homes. That facility is no longer there. If you had a site, you get a place in a couple of days.

Another thing which has to be remembered is that the figures are going up, but we are housing more immigrants and housing more than our own. I fear no provision has been made for that. Reduce the tax and incentivise people to let their vacant houses out. That is necessary to tackle the problem of those empty houses. A vacant house provides no tax for the Government. We should take less tax in respect of such houses and do the same around the country for the other landlords. People would be far more interested in letting out their houses as a result.

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