Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am disappointed that the Minister of State is not accepting the amendment as is but I welcome the fact that he accepts the thrust of it. It is obvious there was unanimous support in the Chamber. This is a practical amendment that will greater strengthen the legislation.

I, too, welcome the housing need and demand assessment. It is a long overdue tool. I am delighted that it is in place. It can greatly enable us to tackle the housing crisis, but it is only one side of it. That tells us the housing need.

We are proposing to take that work and build on it by getting every local authority to identify what it is setting as its targets to deliver in terms of affordable homes, both to purchase and rent, and to set out on an annual basis what it sees as being its target for the next three, five and ten years. We are asking that the local authorities would undertake and publish that first plan within six months of the coming into operation of this section. I urge the Minister of State, as he moves forward, to incorporate this facility in the legislation.It is not just the Members of this House who believe this provision is necessary to enable the legislation to deliver for citizens, it is also the local authority members for whom we speak. We look forward to engaging with the Minister of State on this matter and seeing an even greater enhancement to my amendment.

I wish to pick on the suggestion by Senator Seery Kearney for an annual once-a-year account to be given to the Houses of the Oireachtas when this legislation is up and running. I think there should be an annual debate in the same way that there is an annual debate on the budget. We have a housing crisis and we all know that it is not going to be fixed in six months. Therefore, we should, for a period, at least once a year say where we are because the Government is providing so many tools and interventions in terms of the Land Development Agency, approved housing bodies, local authorities and the private sector. We should at least review progress once a year and I ask the Minister of State to include that along with improving on my amendment.