Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, is doing a great job in trying to revolutionise that Department but it, through its prefects across local government, has completely misunderstood the capacity under the housing Acts and local government and planning and development Acts to make a difference by acquiring land and helping in the process of redevelopment. Personnel in the Department just do not do that. They do not look at ten or 15 acres in Clanbrassil Street or off Dorset Street and say, "This could be radically different if we were to CPO it". They do not think in that way. This is the big thing about the Custom House which existed when I was Attorney General, when I was Minister for justice and before that. They think the Constitution somehow prevents them from using redevelopment powers to make a decent city, build more property and take over derelict land. It is sad how pathetic the implementation of the Derelict Sites Act has been.

If we want to address the housing crisis in urban Ireland, particularly in Limerick, Cork, Galway and Dublin, I urge the Minister to urge his colleagues in government to read the Constitution. It allows urban redevelopment and it allows the State to take a lead in this matter, not by doing all the building itself, as the ideologists would ask, but by doing what was done 100 and 200 years ago and saying, "This area must be redeveloped and this is the plan to which it must be done and these are the powers which we have to secure that". If we are dealing with the housing crisis, the time has come for the Government to tell the Custom House to tell local authority management that it has the power to do things. They can buy all those vacant sites and take them into public ownership. They did not do it until this Housing Development Agency came into being because they were reluctant to do it. God bless the Housing Development Agency. Perhaps it will achieve all these things. I do not know.

I agree, finally----