Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Senator O'Reilly’s intervention. We should be having a wider debate on Senator Boyhan’s contribution in the context of how we can develop in tandem with the LDA to work in partnership with local authorities, the Army, the Garda or whoever in looking at different models around the development of housing. We should not be afraid to be ambitious and different. If this means having an honest conversation, let us have it. I often look at this, as a member of the Constitutional Convention. I think the Minister was on it also. He mentioned Malahide. The Citizens’ Assembly and the Constitutional Convention have done a power of work. This is an area we could look at, if Oireachtas committees have not done so. We must look differently now.

Senator Boyhan mentioned the city of Malmö. He and I have been in other cities, such as Geneva, where we saw a model of housing being developed that is different from here. As the world evolves and changes, we should look at how we can remodel and refit some of our public buildings. I go back to my fundamental point, which is that there is a need to reincentivise, to reinvent and to provide for affordable, cost-rental or social housing in parts of our cities where there are buildings lying idle for a variety of reasons, such as dereliction. In some cases, councils do not have the wherewithal to develop. The living over the shop scheme, for a variety of reasons, has not worked. That needs to be looked at again. There are parts of this city, of my own city and of other cities, where we can-----