Chris Andrews (Sinn Fein)

I welcome this important Bill. If enacted, it would make a huge difference throughout the country. It is disappointing that it will be kicked down the road for 12 months. Any issues I have heard being raised here could be addressed on Committee Stage. Why not let it go through the process and iron out the creases? That is what we are supposed to be doing. Instead, the Government is again short-changing the Seanad. The Bill is important because it is about dereliction and regeneration. We do not have to look too far from here to see dereliction and the need for regeneration. Over on Kevin Street there was a site owned by the State. In the middle of a housing crisis, it was sold to a private developer. The private developer overpaid, paying €140 million for the old DIT site on Kevin Street. In the middle of a housing crisis, why in the name of God was that site not used for housing? Wrapped around that site are developments like Iveagh Trust Kevin Street, Bishop Street and York Street. All of these areas are in desperate need of housing. What did the State do? It sold off the site when it is most needed. Now it is lying there. It has been developed to just above ground level. It can just about be seen above the hoarding. It is just rotting. For more that a year and a half, the developer could not get refinancing for it and so it is lying there. There are desperate families in Kevin Street, right in the inner city, looking for housing and the site is being allowed to lie idle. The State has made a shambles of it. The State now has an opportunity to buy that site. Why does it not do so? The Land Development Agency could buy the site, apply for a new planning permission and put housing on it so that local families can get housing in the community.

Another example of dereliction is Baggot Street Hospital, a ten-minute walk from here. Everyone knows the site. It is lying there, derelict and rotten. It now appears the HSE is going to sell it off. This is another example of the State selling off its properties in the middle of a housing crisis when communities across the inner city and across the country desperately need housing. What does the State do? It sells it off to a private developer who will, again, probably pay too much for it, will have to refinance it and will leave it lying idle for another few years. In the middle of a housing crisis when local families are looking for homes, this is scandalous. You could not make it up. There have been so many proposals for Baggot Street Hospital but the State ignored them all. The HSE has an iron grip on that site and will not let it be used. It will probably become a hotel, which is of no use to anybody other than tourists. At at time of a housing crisis, why does the State not use that site for housing? Alternatively, it could give it to Senator McCarthy to develop along the line of the fantastic buildings run by Tiglin. Why not let him use the site for that purpose instead of building another hotel?