Nicky McFadden (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Finneran. I echo what my colleagues have said, namely, that the Minister of State is an interested and dedicated Minister for housing. I thank him for the interest he has shown in my area of Athlone. I appreciate it.

I commend this motion and I commend the Labour Party on tabling it because there are many uncompleted houses on unoccupied estates, especially in the midlands. In the town of Athlone there are 600 people on the housing list. In the catchment and environs of Westmeath there are huge numbers on the waiting lists. I am aware that many of those are not urgently in need of housing. Some of them are on the housing list because they have to be to get their rent allowance. There are 100,000 people in receipt of rent allowance.

I agree with the Labour Party motion. Why can we not use these houses that have been taken over by NAMA for social and affordable housing? The affordable housing schemes appear to be at an end. There are no longer any affordable houses. People cannot buy them. There must be joined-up thinking as to how we can convert those houses and ghost estates into homes and communities where people can live their lives.

The other area that concerns me is the amount of money involved. My colleague in County Cork, the mayor for County Cork, Councillor Jim Daly, raised the issue of bonds. Significant sums of money of between €500 million and €600 million were gathered over the period of the boom for bonds for housing estates. Those bonds could be drawn if there was a co-ordinated policy and the money could be spent on installing lighting, footpaths and roads in these ghost estates for the benefit of the people living there who are probably in negative equity because they have spent so much money on their mortgage and are now to the pin of their collar trying to pay it back. If we spent the €500 million that has been gathered in bonds, it would go a long way to putting in place roads and lighting for those people and would ease their plight. Now that building costs are greatly reduced, we would get very good value for money. It would also stimulate job creation and get people working.

The other area about which I am concerned, and I am sure my other colleagues have the same experience, is housing for single men. That is a serious issue because many relationships are falling apart. I do not know the reason it is so prevalent but that is a debate for another day. There are men who see their children and spend time with their families in places like McDonalds.