Paul Bradford (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response. This is the beginning of a much more substantive debate on housing policy. I read with satisfaction his closing comment that his objective is to work on behalf of tenants, landlords and society as a whole. My concern is that sometimes the person who holds the Minister of State's position, which is very important, sees himself or herself not as the Minister for housing, but as the Minister for the construction industry. As a society, we urgently need to draw a firm line between what some people see as a very straightforward black and white construction industry and what I see as the need for an industry to provide housing for families and societies. I am not being critical, but in the Minister of State's first days and weeks in his current role the Construction Industry Federation held a function that he, rightly, attended. I read remarks afterwards from one of the speakers introducing him, who noted that the construction industry had its Minister again. I do not want to see him as the construction industry Minister but as the person responsible for ensuring that families across the country can be provided with social, affordable, or private housing, or whatever is the appropriate mix.

We need to be careful where we go in the future and that a step into the future is not a repeat of the past. Government policy and Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government policy were set very strongly and negatively for too long by some of the bigger players and the louder voices in the construction sector. The voices the Minister of State needs to listen to now are the voices of the hundreds of thousands of people across the country who are looking for a housing solution and who want to see a proper balance of social, private and affordable rental accommodation. His ears are open in that regard, from what I know of him, but I want to hear about him as the housing Minister, not as a quasi-spokesperson for the construction industry. I thank him for his response. He will be back in the Seanad debating other housing Bills and we will continue what I think will be a positive engagement.