Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I, too, welcome the Minister to the House and wish him well with his very difficult portfolio. Much has been said in the debate on affordable and social housing. I am disappointed over the slow progress regarding affordable housing. I noticed this week that the State has found an extra 235 acres to be made available for affordable housing. I fully support the initiative, established at the national partnership talks some years ago, to make land available to the State on which houses can be made available more or less at cost price. As the Minister probably knows, I was the one who proposed this at the talks. It would be very useful if the relevant committee could be urged to determine the obstacles that need to be cleared and where we can assist in the process.

I am not standing here to be critical and know there are difficulties involved. I know the process has been entered into in a spirit of partnership but I am very conscious, two and a half years later, that we need to be able to show progress at the new session of national partnership talks, which will commence if we are lucky. This is one of the issues that will be prioritised. Goodwill will not be good enough and people will want to see progress. Once progress begins to be made, people will be satisfied. As stated by Senator Bannon, they are not looking for volume on day one but they are looking for movement. We will discuss this issue again on another day.

The issue of most concern to me regarding housing is that of the impact of, and sequel and prequel to, the directive on installation which comes into operation in January. I recognise the Minister has only been in his current Ministry for the past two and a half years or, rather, for the past year. He has made such an impact that the period seems longer.