Pat O'Neill (Fine Gael)

Not to join with the sentiments expressed by Senator O'Donovan in the last part of his speech, I wish our colleague Senator Norris all the best and congratulate him on getting on the ticket and wish the other six candidates the best of luck in the presidential election.

Will the Deputy Leader ask the Minister of State, Deputy Penrose, to come to this House to discuss the housing situation? I would ask that the Minister of State would prepare a report of the figures on each county and put them before this House. In the current economic situation, the Part V provision is not coming on stream, we have no money to purchase or build houses, the rent to lease scheme is not working in certain counties and Dublin City Council cut its housing list by half to 12,500 because people did not reply to correspondence. We cannot rely on the fact that people did not reply to correspondence as a means of removing them from the housing list because some of these people would not reply to any letter. This is an important matter. In Kilkenny, there are 2,500 people on a waiting list for housing. It is important we get the proper figures, have them debated in this House and try to come up with some solution. It will take much deep thinking to decide how we will solve the housing crisis. There are ghost estates and unfinished estates, but the problem is they are all in the wrong places. There is differing information, with the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland stating we need 100,000 new houses. We must try to solve this. With people in negative equity and losing their homes, there will be more pressure on local authorities. It is important the true figures are put before this House and we have a proper debate on the housing situation.