Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)

I would be delighted to see them. I am sure he has nothing to hide. I know for certain that my local authority did not get any extra start-up houses and I was involved in two developments.

Essential repair grants are causing much confusion in some local authorities, particularly the disabled person's grant. In this case, the health board carries out an assessment for the local authority and the medical adviser has to carry out an inspection. In some cases disputes occur between the health board and the local authority. The person looking for a grant is the loser in all of this. It is deplorable that health boards and local authorities cannot sort out their differences on the costs involved in the assessments of houses for those who seek a disabled person's grant. Inadequate funding is provided for essential repairs grants and the disabled person's grant. This is an area where much investment could be made as there is some housing that could be improved with a little funding and this would increase the local authority housing stock.

The Minister should accept the motion tabled by the Opposition. His own amendment should be amended to exclude reference to first-time buyers. Over the last seven years, his Government has let down those who want to buy a house for the first time. They are now paying top dollar for small houses and apartments. They scrounge and scrape to try to provide a home for themselves and their families. Their parents and, in some cases, their grandparents have to act as guarantors for them regarding the provision of a house.

The Minister of State has had two reports carried out by some eminent people but those reports did not do anything to help the housing crisis. In some respects the Bacon report was a retrograde step in that it allowed a great deal of money to go out of the country when it could have been used to build extra houses here. Some drastic action needs to be taken.

I understand the Minister will ask each local authority to put in place a five year plan but if he reads the motion before the House he will see there is no need for a five year plan. It is clear the amount of housing that is needed. A total of 26,000 housing units were needed in 1996. We need 60,000 housing units now. We do not need any five year plans to be aware of the extent of the current need for housing.