Martin Brady (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this issue. I agree with Senator Norris that we should not play politics with this. I have no hang-ups about the wording of amendments. The people who are suffering are the purchasers who bought houses but are now living in drastic conditions.

I watched a programme on RTE a couple of weeks ago about an estate in Longford. I have to give the builder some credit because he stated that, like many others, he got involved in the building business knowing nothing about it. He was making 20% on each house and thought it was great. His son died tragically in the meantime but he was making an effort to try to rectify the houses for the people who are living there. There is a problem with sewers, they have no electricity connection and so forth. Children are using the unfinished houses as a playground and there have been a number of accidents. It is not a time for either side to be playing politics on this. We must help in some way or other the unfortunate people who are suffering.

I congratulate the Minister of State and especially the Green Party on bringing some common sense into planning. I do not wish to discuss the past because that does not achieve much but there was a situation in which there was self-certification building and excessive zoning. In some cases, more land was zoned for housing than was required by the population in the area, which was crazy. Local authorities acted in a completely irresponsible manner. No inspections were carried out. More than 2,500 houses in this country have had to be vacated by people - I believe there are approximately 400 such houses in my constituency - because the walls have cracked owing to pyrite. There is an ongoing court case about this which I understand will continue for the next three years. In the meantime, the house owners have been left in the lurch. There were no inspections and the local authorities did not act in a responsible manner. They did not carry out the duties required of them.

I compliment the Minister of State on making a start on this. We must fix the problem as soon as possible. In many areas people are living in unfinished estates. The roads and footpaths are unfinished while manholes are high over the surface of the road and are quite dangerous. People are crying out for help. We need to give them some hope and offer them a timescale for when something will be done for them. It is an horrific situation in which to find oneself. One of the people interviewed for that programme was asked what he would do. He said he might have to walk away from the house and rent one elsewhere.

People have found themselves living in remote places with no nearby shops or transport as well as no lighting or proper sewerage system. The Government and politicians in general have a responsibility to ensure no one is left in limbo. We also have a responsibility to ensure these people's mental stability is not affected. Many people are suffering from depression and so forth as a result of the housing in which they find themselves. It is not good enough. They are also quite angry because they see that some of the developers - I do not seek to paint all developers with the same brush - appear to be living in the lap of luxury in other countries. They have just walked away from all this and have not been held to account by anyone. In some cases, people do not even know who the developers are.

I welcome this move by the Minister. How far are we from fixing this? Can we say there will be some progress on it in six months or a year? We must make a start somewhere to give people some hope. It is just not good enough to leave them in their current situation.