Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am a little confused by some of the questions. How many local authorities have received large-scale housing plans of more than 100 houses in the past ten years? Carlow has not had one in 15 years and, like many other local authorities, would love one. I represent councillors, given that I was a councillor for 20 years. This larger planning scale will not affect most rural counties. The confusion is unreal. The Minister should be coming here and saying the scale will work for ten particular local authorities and that it will not affect other areas. He should tell us we are going to try fast-tracking, although it is not a word he likes. That is the area the Minister should address. Instead, everybody is talking about local authorities. I understand. All rural local authorities in small counties would love to be able to say a builder was going to come in and build 100 houses, but it is not realistic and it is not going to happen. The problem is the lack of information from the Department to the local authorities.

We have had this for three years. People need homes and we must build them. The Minister is right. We need to move it now. We must work with the local authorities and the councillors. Given some of the questions being asked here, I have to wonder where the Senators are coming from.We need to move on this. We need to make sure that by 2019, we have houses built for people. As I have said, two people a day are becoming homeless. We need to get this sorted. Many questions have been repeated today. As a former councillor, I understand how important the councillor's role is. However, most local authorities will not be affected by this. I am disappointed that the Minister and the Department did not come here with the figures so that they could say where this is going to happen. Although this will apply to local authorities, my local authority has not had a development of this kind for 15 years. I would love such a development and so would everybody else. I do not know whether the Minister can give a commitment that builders will come into local authorities and build over 100 houses quickly. I would welcome such a commitment. I would be delighted by it, but is it realistically going to happen?