Joe Conway (Independent)

We often have heard the expression than an Englishman’s home is his castle. If that be the case, many of us feel that an Irishman’s or Irishwoman’s home is their birthright. I think that is engendered by the fact that most of us were lucky enough to grow up in secure homes. They would not have been palatial, but they would have wrapped around us not just walls but the wall of love that we all grew up in. It distresses me when I talk to the younger generation and hear them say, with resignation in their voices, that they do not think they will ever own a home of their own.

To that point, I read an interesting article by Eoghan Dalton in The Journal this morning about 80 homes in Portlaoise that are ready, finished and impeccably turned out, but the people who have bought them cannot move in because of lack of capacity in the ESB substation in Portlaoise. We have talked a lot in the past few weeks about planning and balanced planning. That strikes me as the nadir of planning - that houses are fitted out and finished but the people who have bought them cannot move in. They are not sure if they will be able to move in for Christmas now, having been promised last January. I would like to solicit the assistance or interest of the politicians in the Seanad and the other House, particularly from the Laois-Offaly constituency, to get on to the ESB to see what the heck is going on. It is not a very seemly manifestation of how we are planning for the housing crisis.

In the few seconds left to me, I would like to pick up on what Senator Paul Daly said yesterday when he spoke up for farm safety. I did not get the time to do so yesterday, but it would be well worthwhile if we could give great publicity to that. I would say everybody in this House knows somebody who has lost a life on a farm. It is important that it be underscored.