Shane Cassells (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. The sooner we get around to getting this Bill through the House and getting down to the work the better, because as we have seen and as Senator Byrne has just pointed out, we have lost the first quarter of this year with builders not being able to get on site and build, which is what this is all about. I said in so many debates in the previous Dáil that I often wondered who the Opposition thought was going to build the homes. Was it the pixie fairies who were going to come in with magic dust and sprinkle it around the place and homes would sprout like mushrooms? No. It is people involved in the building trade who provide homes. That is a basic tenet.

Many speakers, both for and against this Bill, have stated the Bill cannot be taken on its own. They are so right and nobody is saying otherwise. When it comes to delivering affordable homes, that will happen in many different guises. It will not just be through the measures in this Bill. Funding the Minister delivered at the start of the year through the urban regeneration fund will equally make a mark when it comes to homes in our town centres. Now that inter-county travel restrictions have been lifted, I look forward to welcoming the Minister when he will be doing his John Creedon tour of Ireland. I can bring him down and he can buy me lunch because it is important the Minister sees the variance of what is happening on the ground. There are different scenarios, challenges and opportunities in each of our counties across Ireland, and each of the respective Senators could portray different challenges and weaknesses in each of the areas they represent, and rightly so, and the Minister has to take cognisance of that.

When the Minister comes to Navan he can see the boarded-off site in Rathaldron that has lain unfinished for ten years and which will see 26 new units on it because last month the Minister and the Department allocated €7 million for the county council to acquire that site and build there. We can go on from there down the road to Flower Hill, which has benefited from a total of more than €10 million from two calls of urban regeneration funding. Critically, it will see the largest number of people living in that area in the centre of the town for 50 years. That is because the Department and the county council have acquired one entire side of the street, are demolishing that derelict street and building homes and a community centre in the centre of my town. Imagine that: housing and urban regeneration all in one, a concept that provides homes and regenerates our towns at the same time. I am labouring the point because €500 million that has been announced in urban regeneration and development funding, URDF, this year will accomplish that double goal in towns and cities throughout Ireland.

Yet you would nearly believe there was nothing happening if you were listening to some of the debates in these Houses. I am a great follower of the provincial newspapers and it is funny seeing some political opponents nearly choking on their cornflakes in trying to say the urban regeneration funds are welcome but knowing this could have a huge impact in the towns they represent. That is because one of the biggest challenges we face is acquiring land, and through these funding initiatives we can acquire public land, regenerate areas that have lain derelict for decades and get people back living in the middle of towns. That is crucial because one of the biggest issues we all face in new residential areas is the lack of facilities. This is a concept where we are getting people beside retail, schools, sporting facilities and giving them a chance of quality of living. The Bill the Minister has in his possession is a body of work that will have a huge impact in rebalancing the housing market in favour of the first-time buyer who is trying to get on the property ladder.

A lot of ideological political opinion has been offered in this debate. That is fine, I respect that and I have no interest in trying to convince people otherwise. I would ask, however, that when we have the various schemes in place and when we see the benefits for constituents in their areas, perhaps Members might come into the House and acknowledge it. Mark my words, there are thousands of people who are just waiting to see the green light for the shared equity scheme to benefit from it. The expansion of the Part V scheme and seeing affordability as part of that is massive and that section alone will deliver 3,500 social and affordable homes per annum. We should never have had the buy-out clause for councils in the first place in its original form and I am glad to see this measure being introduced. What is most depressing is Members of the Oireachtas coming into the Seanad and the Dáil and hoping the scheme will fail. What a sad existence it is to be hoping something will fail at a time when an issue such as this should unite us, but Members like to use this and create further division. There is enough division in this country.

I spent four years working closely with the Minister in the term of the last Dáil and I know his political beliefs are driven by the belief in affordability and that people should get the opportunity to purchase an affordable home. That goes to the Minister's core and I know this Bill will make a huge difference in that respect and critically change people's lives. I commend the Minister and this Bill. Please God we will get to see this moving very soon. Well done.