Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is great to have the opportunity to speak on this motion. As of 2024, €5 billion has been allocated to housing. That is a commitment from Government to ensure we have a plan in place. It is true that this is the number one priority of Government. It is a number one priority to make sure we have more access to housing, including local authority and affordable housing. You need to have a plan and it has to be evidence-based.

I listened to Senators Warfield and Gavan. I was in Longford last Friday and we had a panel debate on Shannonside FM. A person who was interviewed spoke about how the cost of a three-bed semi-detached house was €400,000 for the country. My question to the Sinn Féin Senators is: where is the plan? Where is the detail? What is this based on? If we are saying to people that we can build a house, and I do not know what type of house - it may even be a very fancy type of super garden shed - it cannot be done for €300,000. When we talk about the plans we have in government, they have to be based on fact.

The Housing Commission was put in place by the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, in 2021 and it involved 11 to 12 experts. Those experts included engineers, local authority experts, architects and people with experience in the housing sector who have came together and who were there to hold Government to account. As was said, 60-odd recommendations out of 80 or so have been started or implemented. There is talk about a radical overhaul of legislation. I really look forward to the planning legislation that will be coming before us because I know Sinn Féin supports that radical overhaul. I am sure its members will be very supportive of the Government when it brings that plan before the Seanad. It is crucial we see that being put in place. It has taken so much preparation. It has gone through the committee and will be coming to us in the Seanad. The quicker that legislation is put into place, the quicker we will see action and activity in terms of more development.

From an educational perspective, I am my party's spokesperson on education in the Seanad and over €100 million has been allocated for 1,000 student bed spaces. That includes close to 500 for University College Dublin and Dublin City University and roughly 100 for the University of Maynooth. I have spoken before about 640 student units in the University of Galway, my own university.With those measures we are looking at a whole-of-government approach. It is not just one area of the Government that is tackling this crisis that faces us.

We are a country of almost 5.2 million people. The highest number of people ever are working in this country. We need to be able to ensure we have affordable housing. My question relates to affordable housing provided by our local authorities. I saw 136 new homes with families moving into them in Ballinasloe. I saw more than 56 new homes in Roscommon town that again families will move into and another 16 homes in Ballyleague. They are all local authority homes, but we also need affordable housing. I have also seen a 40% increase in the income threshold for people who can access HAP - that is in my area of County Galway, including Ballinasloe - from €25,000 to €35,000, but it is not enough. We need more. There is a crisis. The Government has to lead the way. The legislation is one of the measures, as are how we are supporting HAP, the Croí Cónaithe scheme and looking at vacant and derelict homes.

I agree with some of the points that were raised. Staged payments need to be considered. Some local authorities are outsourcing the inspections done through the local authorities and the Government. They need to happen more frequently. I come from a rural area. We had one of the highest numbers of applications in Galway and Roscommon. I want to see success in this and success would be for families to be able to draw down those funds once they have put the measures in place. There are things we can improve on. The benefits of that programme will be seen in years to come. We will see even more success in people applying to it, but there are measures we need to look at.

I acknowledge the people on the Housing Commission that put the report together. The Government will look at its recommendations and putting them in place. However, there are a few points the Minister of State could bring back to the Department with respect to what we want to see in rural areas. I would like to see consideration of some kind of staged payments, especially for people who are vulnerable. As has been mentioned, regarding housing for the western regions, the Western Development Commission talked about how 95% of homes and housing did not reach the BER B2 rating in western counties in 2020. I hope that has improved. We need to see such things as the housing adaptation grants, the SEAI retrofits and the number of SEAI assessors being increased. We are putting all these measures in place. We have been tackling it in recent years but more needs to be done.