Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)

I support this motion. How many more motions and debates are we going to have to get some realism and reality applied to the disastrous situation in which we find ourselves with regard to housing? It is organised mayhem. Every speaker – I had a chat last night with my colleague in south Tipperary – states housing is the number one issue. Our clinics are bogged down and there is so little we can do. There is so little output. In this regard, consider the whole HAP disaster. Billions of euro have been spent on it that should have been spent on public housing. We lost our way here as well.

During the War of Independence, the Custom House was attacked. I do not want anyone to be injured now but the Custom House has to be dismantled. The deep rot and systematic failures in it are intolerable at this stage. What kind of electoral democracy have we such that we cannot have Ministers who will challenge this and the Secretaries General – I have nothing against any of them personally – in their fiefdoms?

I have skin in the game because I was chair of a voluntary housing association that built 17 houses – 14 and three. I saw all the delays, the supplication and the six different departments all over the country that just pass paper around, keeping people in jobs doing paperwork. If we want to build three or four local authority houses, we have to get a design team and consultants. Why can we not have but one scheme and just adapt for each site? It is a pure racket. This is going on and on and there is no sign of it changing.

We have had more housing Ministers since I came in here than we have had hot dinners. They all do their best but there is utter failure. Was it Einstein who said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting to get a different result? That is what is happening here. We have a nice new acronym for the role of the new fellow brought in to move mountains – another job with a brass plate and a big office and a team of people under him, but doing nothing. Let us give the local authorities the powers to build.

We had a borough district council in Clonmel that was abolished by Fine Gael under that wasteful plan it had for putting people first. It put people last. We had in the past a team, whom I salute, of builders and maintenance men, and the stock was being maintained. Now I believe there is just one person in the whole borough of Clonmel. That is not good enough.

Dublin was alluded to. Flats like those in Ballymun were built in Germany but the latter are in pristine condition. Some of ours are demolished or falling down. Properties are not being maintained and people are not encouraged to have pride in their houses.

The housing of the wonderful Caisleán Nua Voluntary Housing Association, with which I am still involved – I spoke to the chairman on the phone about something – is in pristine condition.

The residents are very happy. There are little niggly bits and there always will be. It is one of the most joyous things I was ever involved in.

We need to support the small voluntary housing associations, not the likes of the Peter McVerry Trust and many more housing agencies, which have turned into huge conglomerates. I was on the national body for a number of years so I know. They took control of that, with their claws around it, and squeezed out the ordinary, local voluntary organisations, which is not acceptable. We need a massive rethink. Dismantle the Custom House and make it into a homelessness shelter or something. Get the mandarins out of there and get some common sense in there. Builders ring me every day of the week about Irish Water and An Bord Pleanála. I got a call last night about a Bord Pleanála inspector who did a report using ChatGPT. Imagine. Where are we going to end up next? Now we have changed the name. I love the Gaeilge, like the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach, Deputy Mairéad Farrell, but changing the name is not good enough when there is systemic rot in those organisations, in the Custom House and in An Bord Pleanála.

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