Frank Feighan (Fine Gael)

I also welcome the Minister of State to the House. In Boyle, the town of 2,500 people where I come from, there were 23 new applications for home ownership yesterday. These people had got tenancy of their new apartments and houses and were doing a pre-tenacy course, which I certainly agree is useful. It was great to see people with pride, self-esteem and confidence in the future moving into these apartments and houses, but I would point out that they should have been moving into these units three years ago.

The apartments in Boyle had been purchased by the local county council. This is not unusual. They were purchased because there was nobody else to buy them. I believe the county council got a good deal. The council was able to purchase those apartments because it was given money by the Department under the turn key scheme. I welcome that scheme, which has helped ease my problems with the housing list in Boyle and which has also brought units into the housing stock which would never have been there otherwise.

I welcomed Part V two years ago. I thought it would be the solution to all our problems. If the Minister had given it time it would have been, but he has not given it enough time.

I welcome the fact that the Bill addresses the previous problems of the grey area for the local authorities. Many local authorities – not my county council – were not interpreting Part V correctly and were not prepared to make a decision. Unfortunately the Minister has had to redefine Part V through the use of a levy of 0.5% or 1%. This provision will hopefully garner €70 million towards affordable housing. I welcome this but I do not believe that the local authorities interpreted the 2000 Act as it was meant to be interpreted.