I move:
That Seanad Éireann condemns the Government in relation to its housing policy; and its failure to provide adequate finance to meet the growing, housing lists in each county in the country.
This motion was tabled because of the huge social implications for many families throughout the length and breadth of this country. The Government have totally reneged on their responsibility to provide housing for the many families in need of housing. I have tried to establish, as best I can, the numbers of people on the waiting lists for local authority housing. I reckon there are up to 50,000 families on those waiting lists.
This Government and the previous Government have done absolutely nothing in the past five years to tackle this major social problem. In fact, since John Boland was Minister for the Environment, the allocation for local authority housing has dropped from over £80 million to £40 million and much of the responsibility for that must lie on the shoulders of the former Minister for the Environment, Deputy Flynn, who seemed to take the callous view that those on the housing list did not count.
I am now calling on the Government, and on the Government Senators, to support this motion. I hope it will reawaken the social spirit of this Government — if they have a social spirit — to make money available to the local authorities to provide housing for families on the waiting lists.
The Government's housing policy is an absoulte disgrace. They were responsible for the abolition of the SDA loans, the mechanism used by many lower income families to provide housing for themselves. Those loans were abolished by this Government or the Government in office from 1987 to 1989. In 1987 the house improvement grants were discontinued. These grants enabled many people to bring old houses up to an adequate standard. The grants which in earlier years had helped to provide water, sewerage and sanitary services were also abolished. As a result, we now have an enormous housing list.
We all know we are going through very difficult financial times. Unless they are in secure employment, people cannot go to a building society and seek finance to build a house for themselves. We are all aware of the huge numbers of repossession orders being taken daily by county councils and by building societies. I came across some figures recently for three towns in the midlands. In Nenagh 16 houses were up for repossession at one court; in Portlaoise there were 15 and in Tullamore, 13. The same situation exists in Roscommon. Unfortunately, people are not longer able to meet the huge loan repayments arising from the rise in interest rates and the abolition of full mortgage relief, by the Government over the past two years. I am now calling on the Minister to restore full mortgage relief immediately.
Many other issues have contributed to the huge housing lists, all of them due to mismanagement by the Government. They seemed to feel the local authorities were not providing a good service. They now seem to think their brainwave with regard to social housing and voluntary housing will meet the needs of the people today. That is not the case. The Minister and his officials know that the shared ownership scheme is not working. It is a failure and the sooner that is recognised the better. It is a sham. Nobody is going to buy half a house and then, ten, 15 or 20 years later, buy the other half, having regard to the increase in the value of the house. If the second half could be bought out later at the original cost, then the scheme might work but despite advice from many Members in this House and in the other House, the Government decided against that.
Voluntary housing schemes might be fine in some areas where there is good, close community spirit, where, for example, there is a sizeable population. It will not work in most of rural Ireland because the structure necessary to put up the capital to get the project off the ground does not exist. As the Minister and his officials know, the scheme is not working.
I am not blaming the Minister. He is quite new to the Department of the Environment. His predecessors in the Department have failed to provide the necessary funding to the local authorities to provide housing for many families who are living in dire circumstances. These are families living in mobile homes and in condemned accommodation, which is damp and unfit for human habitation. Nevertheless, this Government seem relaxed about it and are allowing that situation to continue. They have obviously failed to grasp the major problems facing communities throughout the country.
I will mention some figures to illustrate my point. In County Louth last year only 23 houses were built although there are 1,000 on the waiting list. In Westmeath, where there is a waiting list of 340, 16 houses were built. In Roscommon, which has a waiting list of 180, 13 houses were built. This is callous in the extreme. It is unbelievable that any Government can preside over a situation like that and not be ashamed. They are making no effort to come to grips with the problem.
Voluntary housing is not the answer, shared ownership is not the answer. Many families who are on a housing list now in many counties, including my own, may have to wait up to 15 years to be rehoused. This is an absoulte scandal.
The funding for local authority house building has been reduced from £80 million to approximately £40 million in five years, causing unemployment in the building industry, social hardship for families and the emigration of skilled tradesmen when one realises this is all because of the reckless decision taken by the Government to reduce the funding to local authority housing, one cannot but be shocked. I am calling on every Member to support this motion because if they do, the Government will make the necessary funding available to alleviate the hardship suffered by so many families. If that additional funding is provided, we will see a major pick up in the building industry and in the related service industries. If the Government are serious about tackling unemployment, this is one way they can bring up to 20,000 workers back into the building and related service industries. At the same time, this would provide the necessary housing for many families who are on waiting lists for local authority housing.
The increase in mortgage interest rates has caused great difficulties and as a result of that and repossession orders further large numbers of people will be on the local authority housing list making a desperate situation worse. There are anything up to a dozen repossession orders in the courts each month and many of those people, unfortunately, will lose their homes. This is because of the Government's failure to tackle the huge increase in interest rates and by their deliberate decision to reduce mortgage interest relief.
I appeal to the Minister to seek the necessary additional funding to allow local authorities to get on with their housing programme, as they were doing in the mid-eighties. In 1987, as a result of a decision by the 1983-87 Government over 3,000 local authority houses were completed. In 1989, that figure had dropped to 768, because of lack of funding — these figures were provided by the Department. It is a desperate indictment of this Government that they have allowed that situation to continue. If it were not for the huge emigration from the west, those figures would be even worse. The emigration in the late eighties and early nineties helped to save the Government from an even more embarrassing situation.
This motion is very timely because the Government are now preparing their Estimates for the coming year. Now is the time to take action to give the local authorities the necessary finance. They have the engineering staff, in many cases they have the sites, and they have the expertise to get on with a building programme. All they need from the Minister is money which is vital to create employment in rural areas, to reduce the huge housing lists and to reduce the desperate suffering on many families who, if they go on the housing list now, will not be rehoused for up to ten or 15 years. I appeal to the Minister to accept this motion.