Mary Henry (Independent)

I commend Senator Coghlan for bringing this Bill before the House. Like other Senators, I had hoped there would be all-party agreement on it.

This is a serious issue. I have constituents all over the country, many of them young people who are trying to buy houses and set up homes. That housing has become so expensive is very hard on people who are at the early part of their careers and are trying to establish themselves in jobs and frequently trying to establish themselves in marriage. The additional amounts of money young people must pay out before they have anywhere to live is a terrible stress on them. Some people are fortunate enough to be able to live with their families but others are trying to pay rent on one premises while making repayments on a house which they cannot inhabit. The stress of this financial burden is huge.

The fact that people sometimes cannot occupy houses when they are finished and have to let them and go back to live with their parents has also been brought to my attention. It is not a joke to say there is no longer such a thing as the empty nest because people are moving back in with their parents. Sometimes this is because of really serious financial problems and the fact that young people cannot meet repayments. Loss of a job, even for a short time, makes the situation even worse.

I am glad Senator Hanafin mentioned two things about which I have been concerned. One is infrastructure. These houses are sometimes built in places where little or no infrastructure has been put in place and some of the estates on which the houses have been built are very badly finished.

The other matter mentioned by Senator Hanafin is the Department's social and affordable housing action plans for 2004 to 2008. I welcome them warmly because they are intended to give transitional housing in some cases and long-term housing in others to people who have been homeless or who need support so that they can live independently. I hope to see better progress than has happened to date. Simon recently communicated with me to tell me that three houses were built for such people in Galway last year but it looks as though only one will be built this year. With that sort of speed of building we are not going to make a great deal of progress in housing homeless people. I ask the Minister of State to ensure these are included in all his plans because the lack of housing is a terrible loss of human rights.

I often walk down Baggot Street, which must have more homeless people on it than many parts of Dublin. As I came in this morning I saw several people sleeping rough in the street. To see that in Dublin 4 and Dublin 2 on this Bloomsday was not a great advertisement for the city where Leopold Bloom made his peregrinations.