We are talking about the problems with housing again. I want to address a few issues that are having a serious effect on how we deliver our housing stock. In my constituency, many towns and villages do not have a wastewater treatment plant. These towns and villages have been frozen out of any developments as An Bord Pleanála deems such developments to be premature until municipal water treatment plants are in place. In April 2022 the Department and the Minister announced a pilot wastewater treatment scheme costing …

Could we get a sense of when we might see the review that is ongoing in regard to housing aid for older people - the housing adaptation grants and the mobility grants for people who deserve them? It is a great scheme. While I am aware the review is ongoing, I would like to know when it will be published because I have come across a lot of people who are struggling with the costs.

I welcome the fact that the review has been concluded and that it is with the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. I hope that the costs will get sorted out. The one issue I did not hear the Minister of State talk about is housing aid for older people. Is that part of the review? The level of the grant needs to increase because of construction inflation, and the income thresholds also need to be increased. In addition, a little bit of flexibility is required for the housi…

It is all very positive. I know it takes time to get the money in place. I am sure they will not be found wanting, but I encourage the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, and the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, to make sure that we try to get this done as speedily as possible. I have come across a leaking roof on a house where a woman in her 80s lives. The cost to repair it is €27,000 and the maximum grant she can get at the moment is €8,000, so it is totally unaffordable for her even with the grant. It is impor…

We talk a lot about all the houses we are building in this country. We talk about all the social housing we are building. I see it in Galway East, in Tuam and other places where housing estates are being built. It is good. We are beginning to see the fruits of the labour. A concern I have is how we manage this housing stock so as to keep this costly asset in a condition to last for the next 40 or 50 years.

With all of that investment, the Minister is proving the point I am making. I do not believe the local authorities are equipped to take this on. The other aspect is tenants’ behaviour and how the tenants are being managed. In Galway, I think we have four housing liaison officers in the entire county. We are increasing our stock of houses. I have seen first-hand where houses built in the 1980s were demolished three years ago because they fell into disrepair. I see housing estates where standards have dropped in term…

Absolutely. That last piece is effectively about prevention. Rather than trying to cure a problem, we prevent it. I agree there is much investment going in. That is where my concern would be. Look at some of the housing bodies. Clúid, for instance, did developments maybe 20 years ago, including one in Tuam, St. Jarlath’s Court. There is a manager full time on site. How can they afford to do it while the county council cannot afford to do it and their staff are run off their feet firefighting all the time? That buil…

Will the Minister of State update the House on the guidelines on rural housing, which are being reviewed? Perhaps we can discuss the review and find out exactly what is happening.

I thank the Minister of State. I live in a rural constituency and I see how difficult it is for young people to get planning permission in the areas where they want to build homes. People are being refused planning permission. They cannot build on their own farms because they are not the person farming the land. If we are to have sustainable communities in rural Ireland, we need to make sure people can build in rural areas. We have to support our national schools and sporting clubs. Earlier, we had questions on sew…

I welcome that the Minister of State has said he wants people to live in rural Ireland. Let us make it happen. It is important, when we think about it, that various local authorities take various views on planning. Within each local authority, different planners take varying views as well. This is the inconsistency that is there. These guidelines need to be consistent. I come from a construction background. I do not think planners should be deciding on whether people have an overhang at the eaves of a house. This i…

I want to raise the issue of planning in Ireland and how we are going about that business. The context is that I met the Planning Regulator yesterday and we discussed policies. He was in the audiovisual room presenting to us. It is glaringly obvious that the housing situation in this country, especially the private housing market, is dysfunctional. Developers are not building housing estates and we have an issue in that we have a lack of infrastructure in the regions and so on. The most significant thing I see happ…

The core strategy. It is preventing us from zoning lands to have a supply of lands available for residential development in our towns, our villages and our cities because we have to follow this core plan based on population increase. In most cases, however, we are zoning lands that may not be available at all for one reason or another, we are zoning lands that will never be sold for development and we are zoning lands that may be landlocked. We end up with a situation in which the price of land which is zoned goes …

I meant to say it at the start but on behalf of the Regional Group I want to extend our sympathies to the family of the late Brendan Daly, a man who I met on a number of occasions. May he rest in peace. I want to come back to the Tánaiste's reply. He said the Government has to drill down into it and he spoke about a strategy for building houses. We all know that the private housing market is dysfunctional. Anybody who is building houses will say that, apart from people who are building apartment blocks in the citie…

Common sense.

It is scarce.

I welcome the opportunity to again speak on this important subject matter. Yesterday when I spoke about this issue, we were talking about farmers, the protection of farmers and how the communication to farmers on what has been going on has been poor. We talk about climate action and the measures we are taking to try to deal with it to reach our targets but we have a huge opportunity with our public transport, rail networks and the extension of the western rail corridor north from Athenry to Claremorris. We have bus…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this very important issue. I welcome the staff from the Tuam office who are here today to do some training, and also Rory from County Derry who has joined us as well. I must first compliment Deputies Fitzmaurice and Harkin and the group for bringing forward this motion. It is timely that we discuss this in an open and forthright way. There is a lot of fear, anxiety and worry among farmers on what the future holds for them, especially for young farmers who are deciding whether t…

That is beyond the scope of this debate.

The Minister to conclude.

I wish to advise the House of the following matters in respect of which notice has been given under Standing Order 37 and the name of the Member in each case: Deputy Jennifer Whitmore - to discuss the possibility of refusing licence applications for the 2023-24 hare coursing season. Deputy Pat Buckley - to discuss the continued and long running boil water notice in east Cork and the need to resolve the issue permanently. Deputy Brian Stanley - to discuss primary school places in Portlaoise. Deputy David Stanton - t…