Paul Bradford (Fine Gael)

I support the call by my colleague, Senator Fitzgerald, for a debate on the emerging housing crisis. It is difficult to accept that as we reach the end of the Celtic tiger era, one of the issues which remains as significant a problem as it was when that era began in the mid-1990s is the housing crisis and the fact that tens of thousands of people are still looking for social housing. A debate is urgently needed because while all these people are awaiting housing, there are thousands of vacant houses throughout the country. There is a crisis in the housing industry. A large number of houses are available for rental accommodation. From a policy perspective, we certainly need flexibility, a little bit of imagination and a significant amount of investment. The debate called for by Senator Fitzgerald is very urgent and I support her request.