David Cullinane (Sinn Fein)

I welcome the Minister of State and the opportunity to participate in this important debate. I also welcome the well rehearsed and delivered speech by Senator Cáit Keane, in which again the narrative is that it is all Fianna Fáil's fault. There is a clear departure in terms of policy on the part of the new Government which it is stated needs time because Rome was not built in a day but that it will eventually sort out the mess left by the previous Government. The only problem is that there has been no significant shift in policy, especially on housing. There has been a shift away from social housing in the traditional sense to a different form of delivery, of which we can debate the merits or otherwise. That is partly due to economic reasons because we do not have the money to maintain the level of capital funding provided in the past. It is also partly due to ideological reasons, as some people prefer social housing to be delivered through the private rented sector and there are, of course, also policy implications. However, there has been no significant shift away from what was set in motion by the previous Government.

Let us take social housing as the first example. There has been a huge drop in investment in such housing. This manifests itself in a number of ways. First, local authorities are not building a significant number of new houses. Part of the logic behind Part V of the Planning and Development Act 2000 was that because there was a lack of social housing being built, it would be replaced by Part V housing through new build developments in the private sector. The difficulty we have at is that there is no new building in the private sector either; therefore, Part V developments are not coming on stream in local authority stocks. That, combined with the fact that there is no new building of local authority stock, means the housing waiting lists are increasing. In addition, approximately €500 million a year is being spent on supplementing private rented accommodation through either rent supplement, long-term leasing or the RAS, rental accommodation scheme, option. There is also a lack of funding for the retrofit scheme. When they were in the opposition the Government parties stated they would support proper investment in the scheme. In Waterford city there has been a significant drop in funding for the scheme and housing maintenance. There is also a lack of funding for what was previously described as the disabled person's grant which became the housing aid for the elderly and mobility grants. The funding is simply not available where older people and people with disabilities need work to be carried out in their homes.

I was a councillor in Waterford city from 2004 until my election to the Seanad. Waterford City Council put in place a priority policy with grades 1, 2 and 3 and it was awful to see people being stuck in grades 2 and 3. They had an established need, but the council was never going to get around to them. It might be something as simple as replacing a bath with a shower, but it falls into grade 2 or 3 and the funding is not available to do the work. That is a problem also. A level of capital investment is required in housing to ensure these needs are met.

There is also a problem in mobility. There are two issues related to the rent supplement and RAS option with which I have a difficulty. The first is that people are moving house more frequently owing to the fact that they are in private rented accommodation. The landlord might wish to sell the property, for example, or end the contract for whatever reason and people are forced to move. This can be difficult for families, especially where they have children and put down roots and built relationships with friends and neighbours. It can create problems.

There is also a difficulty as a result of increasing the thresholds in the budget. These changes have meant that people in receipt of or seeking rent supplement are finding it more difficult to secure private rented accommodation. All Members can talk about people who are paying over and above the level of rent supplement. They are giving the landlord €30 to €60 a week in addition to rent supplement. It is the only way they can avail of the RAS option. I understand what the Government was trying to do. Saving money was part of it, but it was also trying to force down rents payable in the private sector and the charges being imposed by landlords for rental accommodation. However, it has not resolved the issue because people are paying cash in addition to rent supplement. In Waterford city the threshold for a single parent with two children is €510 a week. I am aware of countless cases in which those individuals are giving an average of €50 to €60 of their income in addition to rent supplement.

My last point relates to the private sector. One of the problems we have not solved but must solve - it goes to the heart of what was contained in one of the reports published recently that caused consternation - is that when councillors rezone land from agricultural to residential use, it makes landowners very wealthy overnight. It should be about the common good. A number of reports, including the Bacon report, recommended that if land was being rezoned from agricultural to residential use, a reasonable amount of money should be paid to the landowner. That would be a better solution. It is about the public good rather than making people millionaires overnight, which is what happened previously. This played its part in driving up the price of land and property. We must be conscious of this issue in the future. While we deal with the other problems that arose in terms of corruption, we must examine this aspect also, as it was one of the drivers that led to this happening in the first place.