11 February 1999 Edition
No government policy on housing crisis
There is no coherent government policy to meet the biggest housing crisis this country has seen since the late 1960s. This was the message from Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin when he spoke in a housing debate in the Dáil last week.
The Cavan/Monaghan TD took the Minister of State for Housing Bobby Molloy to task for the ``patchwork of measures'' that had been presented by the government instead of a comprehensive policy. The TD said:
``Incredibly the Minister dismissed the call for 10,000 local authority housing starts over the next four years and referred to the `danger of returning to the large, soulless peripheral local authority housing estates of the past'.
``This is very interesting in the context of current tribunals. It was absence of planning, bad planning, and sometimes downright corrupt planning, presided over by the dominant political elements in this State, that led to the housing and environmental mess of the `70s and `80s. We are still living with the legacy. The alternative offered by the Minister is to refuse to undertake a comprehensive public housing programme. Once again misery is being stored up for the future.
``In questioning the need - highlighted in the motion and the second amendment - to strengthen tenants' rights the Minister seemed to equate the property rights of landlords with the housing rights of tenants. There is no equivalence. The right to a home is more fundamental than any abstract right to property.
``It is long past time that a government listened to those with dire housing needs - the homeless on our streets, the young people starting out in life who cannot afford a home, even those on average industrial wage, the tenants living in sub-standard accommodation with no security of tenure and grossly inflated rents, the elderly enduring housing poverty in their final years. Minister, the cut and thrust of this debate aside, I appeal to you to provide our local authorities with the wherewithal to tackle this crisis.''
The Cavan/Monaghan TD took the Minister of State for Housing Bobby Molloy to task for the ``patchwork of measures'' that had been presented by the government instead of a comprehensive policy. The TD said:
``Incredibly the Minister dismissed the call for 10,000 local authority housing starts over the next four years and referred to the `danger of returning to the large, soulless peripheral local authority housing estates of the past'.
``This is very interesting in the context of current tribunals. It was absence of planning, bad planning, and sometimes downright corrupt planning, presided over by the dominant political elements in this State, that led to the housing and environmental mess of the `70s and `80s. We are still living with the legacy. The alternative offered by the Minister is to refuse to undertake a comprehensive public housing programme. Once again misery is being stored up for the future.
``In questioning the need - highlighted in the motion and the second amendment - to strengthen tenants' rights the Minister seemed to equate the property rights of landlords with the housing rights of tenants. There is no equivalence. The right to a home is more fundamental than any abstract right to property.
``It is long past time that a government listened to those with dire housing needs - the homeless on our streets, the young people starting out in life who cannot afford a home, even those on average industrial wage, the tenants living in sub-standard accommodation with no security of tenure and grossly inflated rents, the elderly enduring housing poverty in their final years. Minister, the cut and thrust of this debate aside, I appeal to you to provide our local authorities with the wherewithal to tackle this crisis.''