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

I thank the Minister for his address. As a rural Senator I have massive concerns about some of the pillars. They are all interlinked. We have a very dysfunctional housing market when one considers the long term. I have major concerns about some of the areas the Minister raised, even with regard to Pillar 1 and addressing homelessness. Building houses is the main issue that has not been addressed by this Government. The reason it has not been addressed, as I have said on several occasions, is that the Minister is still dezoning land in local authorities. This is local authority land where the Government could build local authority social housing for people on the housing list. That is a major factor.

In every local authority there are State-owned lands where building can take place. I accept that things got bad, lands went to the National Asset Management Agency, NAMA, and that there were other issues, but every local authority in the country has land. I blame the Department for not playing its role and for a lack of information flowing between local authorities and the Minister. Every local authority is different. I accept that Dublin, Limerick and Cork have a crisis, but the Minister is concentrating on the main cities rather than rural Ireland.