Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leader for facilitating and arranging a briefing today with the Minister of State with responsibility for local government, Deputy John Cummins. It is only an hour and a half, which is somewhat disappointing, but I know that is all he has. Given that a very high percentage of Senators are elected by sitting county councillors, it is very disappointing. If we do not complete our work today, I ask we bear it in mind and have another session when we come back after the recess. It is an extremely important subject. I know from numerous emails I got this morning from councillors that they are engaged. They will be tuning in and they are expecting a lot from us. I do not know what the Minister of State is going to say, but the councillors are putting pressure on us, and rightly so, to advocate for them and I do not think we will have sufficient time. I hope we will put in more time at a later date. I am conscious that in the past few weeks, the lack of engagement by some Ministers in terms of their availability and time is an area of concern. There is another mechanism and another forum where I will vent my concerns on that, but I wanted to flag this to Senators, including the Leader.

I ask for a debate on the status and the recommendations of the Housing Commission. In yesterday's edition of The Irish Times, there was a story about the €1.3 billion wastewater project for Dublin, although it also impacts on Meath and Kildare. Effectively, there is a slowdown on this project and Uisce Éireann is saying that this is presenting a major difficulty for the roll-out of houses. There is a serious concern that these delays to the greater Dublin drainage, GDD, project, which will serve over 500,000 people, will lead to major roll-out issues for housing, given that it relates to an infrastructural deficit. That has to be a challenge and one on which we need a debate. We also need a debate to tease out all the recommendations. A lot of money, time, effort and expertise went into the Housing Commission and we should at least tease out those issues as part of a detailed debate within this House.