Dan Boyle (Green Party)

I have been critical of housing policy in the past and derive no joy from saying that the Irish economy has been overly reliant on construction. This is more the case here than in similar economies. In future our economy must find a sustainable place for construction in economic activities. We continue to have difficulties that must be overcome in the short term, many of which have been outlined by Senator Quinn. We have a long local authority social housing list and there are many empty properties across the country. The ability of developers to initiate new developments has been compromised by a lack of capital that stems from an inability to sell the vacant properties already in their possession. For the same reason, financial institutions that provided capital to such developers are either unable or unwilling to give further impetus to allow developers initiate new projects.

On all these grounds, a possible answer to the social housing situation would be to use all these negatives to create a virtuous circle. We may need a special, tripartite convention on housing consisting of the Government, through local authorities, financial institutions and the Construction Industry Federation. This could help convert as many as possible of the existing vacant properties into social housing units. Agreement could be sought with the financial institutions that payment not be immediate but made on a deferred time basis. If we managed to do this we would remove a monkey, in the form of the financial institutions, from the backs of developers and we would offer financial institutions guaranteed payment at an agreed time, though not necessarily in the immediate future. We would also provide local authorities with the ability to speed up a social housing programme at a time of constrained public expenditure. The housing situation is such that an innovative approach is demanded; we cannot do things as they were traditionally done or as we allowed happen during the Celtic tiger years. We must knock heads together to ensure that the contradictions that exist in housing policy, as outlined by Senator Quinn, do not continue into the future.

Other opportunities also exist because of the lack of effective housing policies in the past. Some 50% of our housing stock was built no later than 1990 and most of this does not meet the type of building standards, especially in terms of energy efficiency, that we see in more enlightened countries with policies on housing energy ratings that are superior to ours. Through our new building regulations, we have put in place the first phase of a new Government policy that obliges new housing to reach a 40% standard. In two years it is intended that this will rise to a 60% standard. It will ultimately reach an 80% standard and the concept of passive housing will apply in a short amount of time.

This does not overcome the fact that much of the country's housing stock comes nowhere close to the 40% standard. Much work must be done on this, through the provision of adequate resources. As has been argued, with the co-operation of the construction industry, a large-scale national insulation programme should be put in place that involves those who have experience in the industry. This programme would look at existing building stock and ensure that money that is being leaked, literally, by householders due to ever-rising energy costs can be saved. The country would benefit through less importation of fossil fuels and householders would benefit through greater control of daily and weekly expenditure. As a result, inflation should be curtailed.

These seem like simple solutions but, like all simple solutions, there is bound to be a fly in the ointment somewhere; a person in a Department is bound to say "we would like to do that, but". However, with the situation as it is and resources as they are, it is not good enough to say that the way things were done in the past will improve things in the future. What was done in the past provided a short-term fillip but never a long-term answer; it was always going to be far from sustainable. Our housing policy must be turned on its head. As Senator Quinn said, we must provide the appropriate number, type and location of housing units. Historically, through the lifetime of this State, on all of these levels, we have failed. We have never planned effectively for the type of housing that was needed by people — housing that would conform with their lives.

This matter should be seen as a series of difficulties that we now have, in terms of the contradiction between a dearth of housing and a surplus of housing and the difficulties caused by the credit crunch for the construction industry. However, it should also be seen as a huge opportunity to put in place a housing policy that will sustain this country further into this century and meet the needs of its people.

We have lived under a number of difficult constraints and historically, due to our past as a colonised country, we have put a great value on land. We have achieved among the highest levels of house ownership in the world but this has seen families put aside much income towards the acquisition of property. Such an approach does not occur in other countries and I do not believe our future housing policy must be based on the idea of ownership. This would represent a huge cultural shift in our country. We have a very small private rental sector and it remains so due to a combination of a lack of appropriate incentives for people to provide appropriate property for rent and the lack of proper policing to encourage people who would like to rent to do so. If we get that balance right, we will be doing a great service towards tackling the ongoing problems associated with housing.

The third area concerns social housing, housing agencies and housing co-operatives. These comprise a very small sector of our housing market, yet they comprise the area that is most innovative in providing housing in the types of arenas I have described.

Will the Minister of State pay particular attention in his response to the issue of homelessness in light of the current economic climate? It comprises an important part of his brief. We should never lose sight of the fact that spending money on homelessness is never false economy and that cuts made in this area in the name of economy always represent false economy. The reasons people are homeless are many and complex and have as much to do with mental illness and substance abuse as they have with the economy itself. I appeal to the Minister of State, given the day that is in it, to make efforts, with the support of the Minister and the Department, to ensure spending in this area is protected.