Michael Cahill (Kerry, Fianna Fail)

We need to zone land and open up planning permission for people, especially for one-off houses. We need to provide affordable houses and social houses. We need to provide private housing, low-cost sites and good-quality modular homes. We need to give choices to our people. I am convinced that good-quality modular homes are part of the solution here. Four or five modular homes can be provided for the price of one affordable house. They are better insulated and much warmer. They can be erected at speed.

I am focusing on modular homes because I meet young couples in every town and village in Kerry. I meet people in Killarney, Dingle, Killorglin, Cahirsiveen, Kenmare and Castleisland. I meet their parents. They would be very happy with modular homes because they are desperate. That is the bottom line. Plenty of land is available in Kerry from the HSE. It has not been used in years, and there are plenty of buildings also that could be quite easily turned into one- and two-bedroom homes. Negotiations between the Kerry County Council and the HSE have been going on for as long as I can remember.

We need to put the skids under Uisce Éireann regarding the provision of wastewater treatment facilities. We have up to 40 villages in Kerry where there is no sewerage treatment. I am a big believer in constructed wetlands. They are much cheaper, they are a success and they can be provided in a much shorter period. We must start providing cluster-type developments and, as others mentioned earlier, we must allow developers to provide the treatment facilities. Uisce Éireann is not going to do it.

Above all else, we must give our people choices. That is why I have put forward four or five different options. Otherwise, we will not reach our targets. I also look forward to the €100,000 over-the-shop grant being introduced. It will be a budgetary measure that will help with the provision of more accommodation.

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