Paul Bradford (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and thank her for her genuine interest in the housing portfolio. I hope she will retain the portfolio following the Cabinet reshuffle. I would like her to hold that portfolio at senior Cabinet level. We have reached a stage of difficulty - I will not say crisis - in the broader remit of housing policy and provision. Therefore, the Cabinet table is the place at which the housing Minister should sit. One of our weaknesses in public policy is that we are very conservative in how we look at policy areas, and certain Departments appear to be untouchable and unchangeable. There should be a dedicated Cabinet portfolio for housing policy not just for the course of the next two years of this Government but for the next five or six years, and the Minister of State would more than admirably fit the bill. The portfolio would cover a wide range of issues, such as housing provision, supply, planning and ethos, which could be tackled. Housing is at the very core of every human's existence. Where one lives defines where and how one is educated, and it defines one's job and career opportunities. Basically, where one lives defines the rest of one's life. Therefore, it is crucial that we attempt to get housing right and put the correct policies and proposals in place, a matter that has been ignored over the past decade or so.

I welcome what the Minister of State has presented in the legislation. I am sure, like any proposal, it does not cover all the bases, but it is a positive step as long as we recognise that it is not the only necessary step.

I listened with very great interest to Senator Sean Barrett making a case that he has made many times in this House. We are again reaching the dangerous political point at which we are equating house prices with economic well-being. There seems to be a desire on the part of some Ministers and speakers in the other House and this House to welcome and cheerlead house price increases as if it is a sign that we are returning to the economic good times. In my view, an increase in house prices must be looked at with great alarm because it could be a return to the bad old days in which it was not the Government but developers who decided housing policy.