Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise the issue of the supply of affordable housing. Anyone involved in politics, be it nationally or locally, knows the importance of affordable housing. We are now at crisis stage. There are people earning a salary of over €100,000 who are not able to purchase their own home, which is outrageous. There are people who are caught in the rent trap, whereby they are paying substantially more than if they had a mortgage, and they cannot pay it.

I welcome the publication by the Government of the draft Affordable Housing Bill 2020. It is an important Bill. I am a member of the joint Oireachtas committee. It is envisaged that we will begin pre-legislative scrutiny of that Bill the week after next. That is an important step in the process. I know that the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, is very committed to initiating and bringing legislation in this area through this House. He has said so in the past. Indeed, he was an effective and active Senator when he was here, and was supportive of the idea. He confirmed that to us in the House quite recently. I suggest that the Leader engages with the Minister to determine whether there is a possibility of doing so.

As the previous Senator mentioned, I am conscious of Covid and the constraints that places on the Houses of the Oireachtas. At the moment, we do not have the time to have statements when we meet. They are important and I accept that. However, it is important that we deal with legislation. I can think of two things. First, the significance of Land Development Agency, LDA, Bill, which has yet to go through some more preliminary work, and the capacity of the LDA to provide affordable rental and purchase homes for our citizens right across this country. It is important and is what I respect and embrace. It is what we should pursue.

There is also the important question of how we are going to address rental, and delivering social and affordable housing on local authority lands. We must not get hung up on who is building them and where they are being built. We must get on with building affordable houses for those who need them.

Finally, I would like to touch upon the issue of the Seanad by-election. There is much talk about this issue. There is much disquiet about Seanad by-elections anyway, from city and county councillors. I have received quite a lot of correspondence in the last few days because many city and county councillors seem to think that they will be voting in these by-elections. They will not. That is one of the anomalies. On the issue of Seanad reform, in my view, the franchise should be extended to everyone. It is a terrible anomaly that city and county councillors can elect Senators in a general election but cannot do so in a by-election. It needs to be addressed.If she can, the Leader might share with us what is the expected date on which both by-elections are to be held and whether they will be held on the same day.