Kathleen O'Meara (Labour)

I am taken aback by the attitudes of the Minister of State and Senator Brady to this simple but effective legislation. It attempts to address and overcome a difficult problem for a number of people, albeit probably a small number, which needs to be sorted. Instead, the Minister of Sate is telling us there is no problem, that everything is rosy in the garden of the building industry and we simply need to have talks with the builders and with the Director of Consumer Affairs. The Minister of State said we must avoid interference with the market through regulation of the building industry. Senator Brady spoke as if it is inevitable that customers are ripped off by a busy building industry. It is not inevitable. Our job it to protect people. The Minister of State and Senator Brady alluded to the proposition that one of the reasons the Government parties fared so badly in last week's local and European elections is because the Government is perceived as being on the side of big business, including builders. The small person is not only being ignored but is being kicked around and effectively screwed and expected to take the hit while many builders make large profits without being held to account.

My point is illustrated by an article in yesterday's Irish Examiner, which was referred to by Senator Coghlan. The article details the circumstances of some house buyers in County Kildare, who have been waiting more than 18 months to move into homes they bought through stage payments. One couple has paid €110,000 to a builder in three stages, out of a total price of €146,000. One result of this is that they have missed the first-time buyer's grant. The house is not near completion and the work that has been done does not correspond to the original plan that was agreed. The new house is unoccupied while the couple is forced to pay for rented accommodation as well as interest on the amount of the mortgage already drawn down. These people are being screwed into the ground. Despite the Minister of State's claim to the contrary, the builders' code of practice is not working. The article mentions a married couple who are sleeping on the dining room floor in the house of the woman's parents because this couple's home is nowhere near completion. This is not good enough but the Minister of State has learned nothing from last week's election results. His attitude is that there is no problem and that he will have a chat with the builders to sort it out.

The Consumers' Association of Ireland maintains that the stage payments scheme should be abolished. This short and concise Bill would do that. Its objective is to abolish the stage payment practice in housing schemes. It does not apply to one-off housing involving a small builder, an ideal situation which is used by many people. The Bill is concerned with housing schemes where the stage payment process is exploiting people significantly. A report on stage payments referred to in this newspaper article claims that those buying houses under the scheme are paying an extra €175 million in interest per year. The Law Society of Ireland reports that 25,000 houses were purchased under the stage payment scheme each year, although this figure does not indicate the breakdown in terms of one-off housing and housing schemes. Although the newspaper article deals with house buyers in County Kildare, this practice is clearly widespread in some parts of the country.

There is a problem and having a chat with the builders about their code of practice will not offer a solution. This code was introduced a number of years ago but the examples I have given are current. The Opposition pointed out several weeks ago that house prices have trebled in the last seven years; almost half of new families cannot afford to buy a house; council housing lists have doubled and now stand at over 60,000; and there are twice as many homes as existed in 1997. The affordable housing scheme has not yielded the necessary numbers and the 10,000 affordable houses promised by the Government after the 2002 general election have simply not been delivered. Four years after its publication, the report of the Commission on the Private Rented Residential Sector has not been implemented. The Minister of State and Senator Brady referred to the culture of home purchase in this country whereby people like to be owner-occupiers. This is not surprising considering the low level of security afforded to tenants in the rental sector. People can only attain security through purchasing their own homes, despite the fact that it is very expensive and puts them under extraordinary pressure. The abolition of the first-time buyer's grant has exacerbated this difficulty.

I support this simple and straight-forward legislation, which seeks to address the evident problem with regard to the stage payment process where it is implemented in housing schemes. One is forced to advise home buyers not to utilise the stage payment scheme when purchasing a home in a housing estate. Unfortunately, people often have no choice as such a house may be the only one they can afford and the builder is imposing a stage payment process. These people end up paying more interest than they should while simultaneously paying rent on other accommodation for a considerable length of time. I appeal to the Government to get real, to observe the difficult reality for home-purchasers and to start listening to people.