Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)

This was a massive stroke of genius on the part of Fianna Fáil because it took on board all the people on the social housing list and they offered their support. They felt that Fianna Fáil would back them all the way and set aside 20% of every development for social housing. What has happened? They now have to face reality in relation to this Bill and the fact that the Bill Fianna Fáil brought in a year and a half ago was never workable.

If 20% of land is still to be set aside and a local authority decides to build the houses itself, will there be an even keel across the country in respect of the price of local authority houses? Public representatives and councillors see great variations in the price of building local authority houses. If the development land is given free, the price of building houses should be the same throughout the country. However, that does not seem to be the case. Even within counties we can see, where tenders are opened, that great variations exist between builders or between different areas under the control of any local authority. This matter should be looked into.

Regarding the purchase of houses, the Department itself gives a different rate for a house in one part of the country than in another part. Therefore, it is adding to inflation of housing costs.