Larry Butler (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State and this debate on housing. It is very important that we ensure our people have proper housing. As representatives of the Government, it is important we set out clearly what we intend to do over the next five years.

The Government has doubled its social housing commitment to €2 billion per annum, which is twice the level of six years ago. In 2006, the output from the local authority housing programme was at its highest level for 20 years, with 6,500 homes completed. The Government has ensured builders provide a portion of affordable and social houses when developing housing schemes. It established the affordable homes initiative to provide 10,000 affordable homes by using State lands. It also developed the affordable homes partnership to accelerate the delivery of affordable housing in the greater Dublin area. In short, the Government provided for the needs of 65,000 households through various social and affordable programmes during its last period in office.

In terms of the future of housing, the structure of the forthcoming budget will be important. Senator Coffey's point regarding the delivery of housing to our people was a valid one. In the forthcoming budget, the ceiling on mortgage interest relief for first-time buyers and those who bought their houses in the past seven years will be increased from €8,000 to €10,000 for single people and from €16,000 to €20,000 for couples and widowed persons.

The Government will expand the delivery of social and affordable housing options to meet the needs of 90,000 households. It will plan strategically for the needs of a changed population to reflect a more dynamic population which moves more often and includes new migrants. It will also work to support the elderly in their homes. A new focus will also be placed on quality in the provision of housing.

The remit of the affordable homes partnership will be extended. After only one year in operation, the partnership, which operates in the greater Dublin area, has proved very successful in engineering land swaps for affordable housing, identifying new lands for the provision of affordable housing, and in providing clear information to those interested in acquiring affordable housing units. The remit of the partnership will be extended nationwide to cover areas where affordability is a problem.

New urban design guidelines for building new housing developments will be introduced. The new housing guidelines launched last March are a comprehensive revision of the 1999 social housing design guidelines and have been produced following a consultation process with all stakeholders active in the area. The new guidelines focus on the process surrounding the delivery of quality housing for sustainable communities, improved settlement patterns and place-making in the context of promoting quality neighbourhoods.

The guidelines include sections dealing with site selection and urban design objectives in the provision of housing which aim to promote quality in design. The purpose of these guidelines is to assist in achieving the objectives for delivering homes and sustaining communities as contained in the Government statement on housing policy, which focuses on creating sustainable communities that are socially inclusive. This social inclusion would be brought about by promoting high standards of design and construction, higher standards of environmental performance and durability in housing construction, seeking to ensure residents of new housing schemes enjoy the benefits of first-rate living conditions in a healthy, accessible, visually attractive and easily managed and maintained environment.

In the past, we have fallen down in terms of looking at how we manage and provide facilities for people in estates. Mistakes have been made. We now have an opportunity to correct the design and layouts. Local authorities have been charged by both Houses of the Oireachtas, which provide finance, with responsibility to ensure better housing and conditions for people.

On the Order of Business, I mentioned that 5,200 houses in this country are empty. Taxpayers' money has been used. Senator Coffey said we have a responsibility. We take that responsibility seriously but the county manager also has a responsibility. Fine Gael councillors control most county councils, so Fine Gael and the Labour Party must take responsibility——