Margaret Cox (Fianna Fail)

I thank Senator Scanlon for sharing his time with me, given that it was so short. I am delighted to have the opportunity to bring certain issues to the attention of the Minister of State. It must be admitted that there is a crisis in respect of housing. Many people around the country do not have the opportunity to buy their own homes, nor do they know when they will be in a position to do so. In that context, it is important to drive home a very focused and joined-up approach to the provision of proper housing for these people.

I have previously addressed a number of issues relating to housing, the first of which is rent allowance. It is wrong for the State to pay out rent allowance on a weekly basis to private landlords throughout the country in order to allow people to live in their properties. Such a policy creates profit for private developers. We should use the money spent on rent allowance to finance the purchase of houses through local authorities. These houses can then either be rented out from the local authority's housing stock or used in joint ownership schemes or new schemes which could be developed to give people a chance to buy their own homes through partnership with the local authority.

My second point concerns an idea which I understand is credited to Fr. Seán Healy. He argued that if the €600 million currently being put into SSIA accounts was unilaterally funnelled into our housing budget for the next five years, it would make a considerable difference to the people of this country. This is a very genuine idea which should be examined.

We must introduce a process between county and city councils in areas such as Galway which permits joint ownership in respect of buying houses for the affordable housing scheme. Under such a process, Galway City Council could buy a house from Galway County Council and vice versa. We should buy new houses and transfer them under the social housing scheme.