Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)

I am glad to have a chance to mention a few issues this. Housing, as we all know, is so important. There is so much talk about it and so many people are not able to be housed. I understand the Bill is to borrow more money to build more houses and to provide more housing. If this is the case, I welcome it. I have stated here in recent weeks that many people are leaving our shores because when they are between the ages of 25 and 32, they realise they cannot buy or build a house for themselves. They are at a stage when they have to decide. When they were younger, they were happy and carefree but when they intend to settle down, what they need the most is a house. While the budget addressed many things, it did not help the working-class people who are trying to come up to the mark of buying or building a house.

There are many things preventing them from doing so. People who want to build a house for themselves should be applauded and helped in every way in the world but we are preventing them.

As I have highlighted before, there are two planning stipulations preventing a lot of people from building houses in Kerry. One is the urban-generated pressure clause. This is meant to stop people coming out of a town or other urban setting to build out in the country. However, that same clause is affecting people who never moved into a town, who live outside of one and who want to build a house near their father and mother. I am not talking about farmers’ sons and daughters. They are being catered for. By and large, they are being seen after. This category of people could be living next door to many of those, however. They might have a site or be able to buy one that is very local to them but they are prevented from building. I have asked the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and other Ministers to address that issue and to do something about it because it is very unfair. They are asking for nothing but planning permission. We should do our best to help them.

In Kerry, we have over 100 km of national primary and secondary roads. You cannot build a house where the exit leads out on to such a road. That stipulation has been in place since 2012, 13 years ago. Many people's plans have fallen by the wayside because they could not get permission even where there was an existing entrance. I ask the Government to deal with that.

Where people want to get on the housing list because they see they cannot build or buy a house, a couple's income must be below a cap of €37,000 or they cannot get on the housing list. I know of a man and a wife with ten children who are failing to rent a house and his income is over the threshold to get on the housing list. He cannot get any housing support at all. I have asked the Minister for housing to deal with that and whether he has any discretion to allow a man, his wife and their ten children on the list. It is not often we hear of that size of family now but they are to be applauded. They have reared the children so far. They have to hand over the house they are in because the man needs it back to put in his own son. It was to be vacated by the end of September but he got an extra couple of months. That is all he will get, however. That cap is totally wrong. A cap of €37,000 is not high enough. It should be something like €57,000 or €60,000 considering what it costs to build a house in today's world and what rent costs in Kerry. In the surrounds of Killarney, you are talking about €1,600 to €2,400 a month for a house. That is serious money. People need help to do the basic thing of keeping a roof over their heads. I ask the Government to look at that threshold.

There are a few other things we need. When the country was going good enough, 20 or 30 years ago, when the local authorities were building houses, they bought sites in different places like Gneeveguilla. I appeal for sites to be bought in the likes of Gneeveguilla, Currow and Brosna where the council could build four, five or ten houses every couple of years. That is not happening at all now. I have heard the Government say that it is has allocated money to the local authorities to buy or build houses but it is not happening. I ask the Minister of State to get after the local authority. At that time, people were getting rural cottages. Those rural cottages are not being built at all now.

People were so glad for the councils to build a house for them on their own site. When they got their legs under them, the first thing they wanted to do was to purchase that house so that they would own it. That is not allowed at all now. No house built by our local authority in Kerry since 2016, whether a rural cottage or a home in a housing estate, can be purchased. People need and want this. Owning your own house is something we have prided ourselves on for generations. I ask the Government to look at that. I cannot understand the logic behind it. The local authority got the money back for the house it built, which then went towards building more houses. For a long time in Kerry, it was used to deal with voids. There was no delay in voids being brought back into use. That has stopped and I ask the Minister of State to look at that because it is very important. We were going well when we were able to do things like that. That is not happening now. People have a need. In the intervening time, they were happy to live in the house they rented from the council but their ambition was to keep it well and to eventually own it when they could. That was always their ambition. I ask the Minister of State to please look at that because it is very important.

If there is extra money now, the Government should look at new ways. For the most part, it is a case of voluntary housing bodies buying up the estates being built or building estates. These homes can never be purchased. People understand that. That is not what everyone wants. Some people are happy to rent but most of the people I know want to eventually be able to buy out their house. However, that is not allowable with the rules we have now. I ask the Government to get the local authorities building because they did it very effectively in the past. They spread the people out around the different parishes.

In places like Scartaglin or Currow, we do not even have a treatment plant. No more housing estates can be built in Moyvane, which is very near Tralee, because the treatment system is not up to standard. I hear that the Department has got more money or is in the process of getting it. I ask the Government to do those things. There has been no private estate built in Kenmare for 20 years. Imagine that. They were held up because of the sewage treatment plant. Some €40 million has now been spent. There are two current planning permissions for housing developments comprising a total of 169 houses. Permission is being refused because there is not enough water in Kenmare. Even though we are surrounded by water, lakes and everything and it is raining most of the time down our way, we do not have adequate water for new estates. I ask the Government to address this. The Government has given more money and more ammunition to Irish Water in recent times. I ask the Government to deal with this urgently because people are leaving Kenmare, Kilgarvan and Sneem because they cannot buy a house anywhere. I ask the Government to deal with this urgently. Further information is being sought on these applications. I ask the Government, whether the Government as a unit, the Taoiseach, the Minister for housing or whoever it takes, to get down there and get it sorted out.

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