Liam Fitzgerald (Fianna Fail)

I support Senator Ó Murchú's call for victims of a crime to be notified of when perpetrators of crimes are being released. Four or five years ago a lady approached me as a result of an assault she had suffered from a young thug. The same youth assaulted others also and was imprisoned as a result. Subsequently, he was released, without the knowledge of the victim, the lady who came to me about it, and he moved next door to her as a partner of the tenant there. It took three years to have him and his partner shifted. During those three years he wreaked havoc and sought revenge at every opportunity. This was an appalling situation for the poor old lady living alone and for the other people in the neighbourhood. It is a potent example of the need for information for victims.

I am sympathetic to the sentiments on affordable housing expressed by Senator Tuffy. Those are sentiments I have held for a long time. If one looks back over the years, those in the professions she mentioned and many other people in steady jobs, such as in Aer Lingus and in the banks, were able to acquire houses within a few years of taking up employment. That is no longer the case. Even if one takes the affordable housing criteria to which Senator Tuffy referred, where the minimum requirement is €45,000, she has a forceful argument.

I have looked at this issue, especially in recent times with constituents coming to me frequently about it. With the difficulties in frontloading a sufficient number of affordable houses, regardless of whether they are admitted, and the fact that the market is so demand-led, I suggest again that we seriously consider returning to an old concept of the Land Commission and reinvent that commission to acquire land, through compulsory purchase order and otherwise, in order that it can be rezoned by the State and offered in lots by tender to builders. In that way and despite the best efforts and wisdom of Dr. Bacon who produced several reports on this issue, one would have real competition among builders in the marketplace. This suggestion has the potential to make a significant contribution to addressing the problems to which Senator Tuffy referred as well as the overall problems of house prices.