Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)

I thank the speakers who spoke in support of this motion. However, I saw the reply from the Minister and the 28 proposals amending what we proposed. They are a copy and paste. That does not give me any encouragement that the Minister is listening. What does Independent Ireland have that the Government and Department do not have? We have common sense. The Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin, said on the floor of the House last week that the majority of common sense is coming from this corner. Why is that? Why do we know about delivery? Deputy Michael Collins has a business background; he is self-employed. Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice is a business person. Deputy Ken O'Flynn and myself are business people all our lives and we are still in business. Why? We are accountable and deliver for our businesses to make sure that not only can we help ourselves through our businesses, but we can help the people who work for and with us on delivery. That is what Independent Ireland stands for and that is the difference between us and the Government.

It is all about departments. The Government puts paperwork, legislation and guidelines in the way of delivery. We are talking about €2.2 billion going to Irish Water or Uisce Éireann, or whatever you want to call it these days. There is no accountability or delivery. I have given the Minister solutions as to how we can help.

I thank Deputy Fitzmaurice for putting this Private Members' motion together, with the help of John Campbell, Mark Nolan and the rest of our group. Why did we do it? We are passionate about delivery. We want to help the Government but it comes in here with proposals, which are a copy and paste, to business people who know how to deliver.

The Government could use our experience to help to deliver houses for people who need them. There is a simple solution: all public housing should be under one plan and materials should be bought in bulk, which is cheaper. When you bulk buy anything, it is cheaper. It should be one-size-fits-all. All houses should look the same - end of story. If someone wants to paint their house a different colour, that is fine. A standard size house would mean delivery would be cheaper and we could deliver faster as the Government would be bulk buying. That is one solution.

On sewerage infrastructure capacity, I have given the Minister the solution. It is to remove the water from the sewerage systems and give more capacity back to the units, which at the moment the Government cannot help. I am talking about existing systems that are at maximum capacity that the Government is not allowing planning permission for. If it removed and separated some of the water, we could build more houses at the same capacity on the same systems that are there. All some other systems need is an extra tank. An extra tank would mean extra capacity, which would allow the cycle to go over a longer term before it is exported back into the waterways. That is another solution.

Irish Water is not giving the Government solutions. Why? It has multi-million euro contracts. It says what needs to be invested in. There are people in here who have been involved in the construction of pipework and would give their experience for free. We can help deliver this for free. Yet the Minister looks at these departments, which are going around in circles.

I will give one example of Pallaskenry. There were 28 emails and 20-odd phone calls between the council and departments. They went around in circles in order to get Irish Water to return to me an A4 sheet of paper that had gone out of date and that would allow a person to build 30 houses that would help the Government’s delivery of houses. It took them eight weeks. It says online that it has a green flag. That system was developer-built. It had a capacity for more than 300 houses. In that area, only 80 houses have been built since that system went in. It took me eight weeks to get a letter from Irish Water, even though online it says it has a green flag, to deliver 30 houses for the Minister and the people of Limerick. The Minister says Uisce Éireann is accountable but it is not. I spoke to more people in departments who did not know where Limerick or Pallaskenry were. I had to get onto this department and that department. That means administration eats up a lot of the money that should go to delivery.

Why does the Minister not take up Independent Ireland’s offer to help him? It is in this Private Members' motion. Yet all the Minister came back with were 28 amending proposals - a copy and paste of other stuff. We are not here to fight the Minister; we are here to help him with the experience we have.

Planning permission fees have been reintroduced even though they were scrapped to allow for inflation costs. Everyone who is building now has to pay planning permission fees.

There is now a VAT rate of 23%. Some 20% of a mortgage for a house is VAT; it is tax. People pay tax when they are working so they can afford a mortgage. They pay a planning permission fee to build their own houses, if they are in a position to do so. Then they pay VAT to the Government, which ends up being 20% of their mortgage. For a house costing €400,000 or €500,000, €100,000 in tax is being paid. Independent Ireland has given the incentives to the Minister. They come from the experience of businesspeople who know what they are doing and who are here for the betterment of the people of Ireland. They are here to deliver for, and ensure accountability for, the people of Ireland. They want to make sure taxpayers' money is invested in infrastructure that is delivered on budget and on time. That is what we stand for in Independent Ireland. That is what we came together for in Independent Ireland. I want the Minister to take up the offer, and I have offered it more than once. Take up Independent Ireland's offer. Let us help to deliver houses.

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