David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We seek to remove this section which allows leasing agreements to be used in place of the provision of social housing under Part V, which we have discussed already. I will not hold up the Minister of State or the House because we are getting to the end of this debate. However, one of the points I meant to make earlier, and I will make it very briefly now, is that I held a public meeting on housing in Waterford city a number of weeks ago. We had speakers from a number of voluntary housing associations, all of whom made the same point. What we need to do in this State is move to a more continental view of housing. Social housing should not be just for what in the past was seen as a certain class of people. Social housing should be available to everyone if they want it. We have a philosophical or ideological hang-up about owning properties in this State and see social housing as being for people who cannot afford to buy their own property. That is not how they do it in continental Europe and in other countries. While we may not want to go fully in that direction, we should explore opportunities in that regard.

I will not go into the matter in detail because I have said to the Minister of State that it would be interesting to have a more broad ranging debate on housing when we come back in September and to look at all those issues in more detail. I wanted to put it on the record today but it is something which would merit a fuller debate in the future.