Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for coming in to take this issue. The crucial question around Housing for All and the document the Government has published is not the reaction in these Houses, it is the reaction on the ground. Since it has been published, I get asked to explain the scheme, how it will work, whether one will be able to qualify for an affordable home in one's position and how the shared equity scheme operates. It is essential that we start to roll those out. The big difference now is that local authorities have the resources and the power to be able to deliver. We need to start to draw up league tables around local authorities' performances. No matter what local authority one is in, one will be able to compare the performance of one's local authority on building social and affordable houses within the area. It should be accessible to the councillors throughout the country in order that they can hold to account the chief executives and those members of staff who are charged with delivering the plan.

The crucial aspect of this will be in a couple of years' time. It is not the ideology, it is the number of people who have keys to homes in their hand and are turning those keys into their houses. That will be the crucial test. I agree with Senator Pauline O'Reilly's point on how it is also about building communities. This has to be around a whole-of-government approach and that is why, as a domestic issue, this Government has made clear it will tackle the housing issue. The big difference between those of us in government and some in opposition is we want to solve the problem. There are those in opposition who want this plan to fail and would much rather this plan would fail in order that they can trot out the same lines they have been trotting out, without any offer of any new plan.

One of the challenges in Housing for All is the estimate that we will need approximately another 17,500 staff operating in the construction sector. Some of those will be coming through the apprenticeship model, which SOLAS oversees. We will see Irish workers coming home. I have some concern there may be distorting impacts on other aspects of the labour market if we have a big rush into construction. It is an area we need to continue to watch and we need to look at visa requirements for specialist international workers, to ensure it is as easy as possible for builders who need to employ international workers with specialisations to come into this country.

The key issue about An Bord Pleanála is the decision-making process is taking too long. What most builders will tell one is it is not whether they get approval, it is the fact it takes far too long. We need to move to a situation whereby the board is giving quick decisions in order that developments can be allowed to move on.

The final area is the question of Irish Water, which is the bigger area. We have talked about this. Irish Water is not fit for purpose. It needs additional resourcing. We are moving towards a single utility, but until we address many of the water and wastewater challenges, we will continue to have some of the problems we see in home building throughout the country. We have to be radical in our approach.

My party has a long and proud tradition of house and home building. Part of the reason we chose to go into government is that we wanted to solve the housing crisis. Unlike Sinn Féin and some of the others, we make no apologies for supporting somebody's aspiration to home ownership. We think somebody who works hard should be allowed to aspire to own his or her own home. There are those who hold a different political view, but the position of Fianna Fáil and this Government is that if one wants to own one's own home, one should and should be supported by the State in doing so. Sinn Féin keeps going on about this anti-developer line. Who are developers? Developers are small builders in all of our communities who are employing bricklayers, electricians, plumbers and plasterers. If that means I am pro-developer by supporting my local builder, plumber or plasterer, then so I am, because, if we do not support them, we will not get the necessary houses built.

If we want to look at Sinn Féin's record, let us look at its record in the North where there is a Sinn Féin housing minister and where, only yesterday, the figures were that 3,596 children are homeless. That is a 48% increase since January 2019. I am tired of Sinn Féin, which has no solutions, coming in here and trotting out the same old line and wanting this Government's policy to fail. However, where it is in charge of housing policy in the North, it is very clear it has failed.