Pat Moylan (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Noel Ahern, to the House and I compliment him and the Minister for their work in the Department. I have listened carefully to many contributors this evening and I know some of them are young and have not been in local authorities. One does not have to go too far back before 1997 to realise the plight in which many people found themselves when waiting for housing. They often had no hope whatever in getting accommodation as lists were growing longer. I compliment the Minister and his predecessor, Deputy Cullen, on the developments that have taken place.

I wish to make a point about housing estates and private developments. Some developers are top class, some are average and some are very poor. The Minister should look at the planning conditions for housing estates. If someone gets planning permission to develop housing estates, they have five years to start or complete that development. In many cases, the estates have been built after 12 months. Unfortunately, some of the essential services are not in place, such as lighting and footpaths. I recognise that there are some very good developers who do an excellent job, but when private estates are given planning permission, that permission should ensure that the essential services are in place.

I appreciate the Minister's announcement that three out of every ten houses in the State have been built in the last ten years. That is obvious, given the amount of excellent developments that have taken place throughout the country. In the past, people did not have the wherewithal to take on board the development of housing. House prices should be controlled in some shape or form. It appears that some of the developers advertise houses off the plans and as the first four or five houses are sold, the price is increased substantially because the demand is there. That is unfair as the cost of materials have not increased at the same rate that housing costs have increased. We must look at that issue.

I would like the Minister to take on board the issue of the selling of local authority houses. With regard to tenant purchases, some people received houses in rural areas and were given a site by their parents for a nominal fee. After a few years, the family would wish to buy out the house. The council charges the full market value, including the price of a site, whereas in some cases those concerned had to buy a site and were entitled to do so. However, where the local authority gets the land for free or for a nominal fee, the sale price of the house should be reduced. I ask the Minister to have a look at that.

I compliment the Department for making funding available for Traveller accommodation throughout the country, be it housing or halting sites. A lot of money has been made available. Unfortunately, many local authority members have failed in their duty to provide proper accommodation and money was sent back to the Department every year because we did not move on the issue.

The Minister must take a stand with city and county managers and local authority members on the issue of transient sites. There are serious problems every year with a number of Travellers moving out of houses and into other areas. There is a responsibility to provide transient sites and the cost of doing so is not great. We should be able to do it reasonably quickly.

Local authorities must move ahead with local area plans. In some counties, villages are being developed and that is to be welcomed. It gives an opportunity for people to live close to services such as the church, the shop, the school. People should not be forced to move out to rural areas and they should have problems with planning permission, with getting children to school and needing to get a second car. Local authorities should provide private sites at those locations, so that people will have an opportunity to buy land for development close to the services at a reasonable cost.

Earlier, Senator O'Toole commented on the standard of construction of some of our housing stock. I wish to respond to this as I am reasonably familiar with the building trade. Undoubtedly, in some cases, it leaves much to be desired. In particular, he referred to cavity wall buildings. Such buildings may be insulated without any difficulty and can be executed to an extremely high standard. In terms of durability and strength, this must be balanced against timber frame construction. I have serious issues with regard to some timber-framed buildings under construction at present. While they may meet criteria with regard to insulation, they may fall short in other respects.

As far as change is concerned, once planning permission has been granted for a particular type of structure, the Department is not in a position to force change on those who received it. The planning regulations which were the law of the land at the time when planning permission was granted remain in force until it expires. Perhaps I am mistaken and something may be done by ministerial order. However, my understanding is that if one receives planning permission for a particular type of structure, one is entitled to build it. Permission has been granted for quite a number of houses of the type to which Senator O'Toole referred and such buildings will continue to come on stream.

This is similar to the introduction of affordable and social housing schemes into planning legislation. Such housing did not come on stream overnight either. When the schemes were introduced, everyone thought it was a great idea. However, because so many planning permissions had been granted previously, the benefits are only now becoming apparent. Such houses are coming on stream throughout the country and make a great difference to many young people who are able to purchase a house at an affordable price. The affordable housing scheme was an outstanding initiative on the part of the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.

Before leaving the subject of housing construction, I wish to touch upon the standard of materials. Recently, I encountered doors which were being sold as solid doors but which left much to be desired. They contained a MDF-type material with a finish that appeared solid. However, if one put a socket through such a door, one realised that one was being had. Thousands of such doors are being installed throughout the country, as people look at them and believe them to be solid. Standards must be examined in this respect.

Local authorities and the Department must be given credit for the standard of local authority housing under construction at present. Members may recall a time when white deal windows of extremely poor quality construction were installed. Now, one receives a house that is on a par with, if not better than, those constructed in the private sector. Much money is being spent in this regard, and rightly so, as one gets a house of high quality. When local authority tenants move in, such houses are painted, kitchen areas have floor tiling, double-glazed PVC windows have been installed and central heating is available. In some cases, features contained in local authority housing are not available in private developments.

As far as two-storied dwellings in local authority schemes, particularly in our towns, are concerned, the Department has changed its policy in respect of downstairs toilet facilities. This a worthwhile change, which I hope continues, whereby if someone has the misfortune to be injured in any way, such facilities may be developed easily on the ground floor to avoid people trying to climb stairs.

The changed circumstances of applicants has come to the fore recently at local authority level. Once, when people applied for local authority houses, it was par for the course that married couples had two or three children before they were granted a local authority house. At present, given the enormous amount of housing that has been developed, we find that single parents are able to get a local authority house, and rightly so. However, this demonstrates that we have come a long way.

As far as both local authority housing and private developments are concerned, the developers and local authorities get away easily in their failure to provide some kind of children's playgrounds or facilities on the estates. Such provision is necessary and we should make changes to ensure this happens in future. Local authorities should take on developers, possibly by imposing a new charge or by using some of the existing charges to ensure that playgrounds are provided for children in such estates.

The rental accommodation scheme to which the Minister commented in his contribution is a worthwhile initiative. Unfortunately, it is being abused up to a point as unquestionably, people have moved out of good accommodation in order to have their rental accommodation paid for.

Local authorities should be obliged to provide more private site accommodation in our towns and villages. Often, the local authority may provide ten, 20, 30 or whatever number of such sites. While they may sometimes be disappointed that a smaller number of people apply for them, it is worthwhile to provide such sites.

My final point concerns land banks for local authority houses. Some years ago, my local county council was forced to sell off land. It is important that local authorities provide a landbank for the future, because the demand for housing is ongoing and we will require a sufficient amount of local authority land. I thank the Minister and the departmental officials. Matters have dramatically improved in recent years.