Paschal Donohoe (Fine Gael)

I support both amendments. I am particularly looking forward to having the opportunity to vote on the amendment tabled by Senators Mullen and O'Toole. They are interesting amendments. If the Government is to be serious about tackling this problem amendment No. 9 achieves that because it does not use the phrase "preferential purchasing rights". Most of the specified service providers for housing are broke. Local authorities do not have the money to purchase houses. I am aware of at least one that is approaching an intensely difficult budget process, as many others will. If the Bill proposed fixing that problem by offering properties at preferential purchase prices to local authorities it will not work because they will not have the money to buy them for the foreseeable future.

It is crucial that we address this objective. In my area of Dublin Central I see people who have been on housing lists for between seven and nine years. They could not afford the house prices of recent years. They will pass vacant, derelict properties. We should find some creative way to use land and these properties to address this problem. Many speakers have mentioned how explosive the issue of housing and related personal debt could be. There is no greater symbol of this than a couple who have been waiting on a housing list for eight or nine years with a local authority that will not have the money to give them anything for another eight or nine years, walking past derelict apartment blocks and vacant plots of land.