Mattie McGrath Slams Minister Over Housing Delays and Log Cabins

First of all, I want to thank my week-as-go-older, Ian Hennadour, Reena O'Donnell and Mairead in our office team for putting this motion together. We are disappointed by the government, but we are not surprised. Minister, before I even get into the substance of the motion, a couple of questions of qualification. You might answer, because you just mentioned there in your address that the grant for a first-time buyer has to be a new house. It can't be a second-hand house. It has to be a first-time buyer. Yes, that is not what I understood from you. Minister, in your own county of Limerick, I don't know who has asked me to ask this about the log cabin with the timber finish. Under the Limerick area plan, these are not allowed with timber finish. They have to be finished with a mortar, plaster or slate or something else. Why all the different... It is something we will look at. It is something we will look at. Sorry? It is something we will look at. We will look at everything. The Minister also said it will cast an guarantee before he fled the chamber. It is most disappointing, from our point of view, as a small group of yoga, that the Minister will never wait to reply. No disrespect to your good self, but he is the Minister of Housing. He makes announcements after announcement after announcement. I attended the Irish Council of Social Housing and AGM last week, only out in the hotel beside Houston. Could he attend? No, on Zoom. Those people with the 350 affiliated bodies contribute hugely, and build houses, and have the amount of work for ye, and do it where you don't look at the council, and others can't do it. He fled off like snow off a ditch again. Go on. He said that to Deputy Hilly Ray, and he clarified at the end of his contribution, that they will receive it tomorrow, going out today. You are saying you are working on it. I do not know what exact phrase you are putting on it, but you are endeavouring to have that out. Why make this big announcement in a blaze of glory without any consultation? Council telling everyone they do not know, they have got no circular, they have got no information. I did hear last week, 74,000 projects that were stalled because they were out of her money, because of the overruns of costs. Anyone, if you pick the person that was blind and deaf, he would know that the costs had gone up hugely, and this would be anticipated. Now they have to wait several months to apply from your department to get extra funds, even to get a bag. Your department is clogging up the whole thing, along with the planning regulator, along with the LDA. All these agencies that were never there, when I was a member of the county council, and they were never there. We built houses, and we had those kind of red tape. I could say you start with a B, and then finish with a T. I would not say what it was. That is what it is. Paper up and down the country. The minister also said there were 830 villages, I call them, or hamlets, villages mainly, in some quite big towns, with no service treatment plans. It is a shame on you, and you are persecuting farmers, householders, and safety tanks, big fillers, and safety tanks, and the dirty polluter was the local authorities themselves, and in Bray here, and the cities of Dublin, and everywhere else. And also, can I also say that, you are the same now, you have been found out, you are trying to demonise the farmers, and the rural people, for CO2 pollution. And you have found out who the polluters are, from paper last week, we all know who they are, the big people, but they won't be touched. So, big is wonderful with you, and it is wonderful with your government, and that is all you want. And it proves how interested you are in our motion this morning, that just for a minute, or maybe three minutes, one back went to arrive there behind you, or during the minister, I am not sure. And nobody else came in from any of the government parties, Fina Fáil, Fine Gael, the Greens, or indeed other independents that support you on a regular basis. So, that tells it all. That tells it all. God, the enemy is faster than I am. Where are the members? A shame they have come in, because they know that your policy is an abject failure. They know that it is all bluster, and bluff, and baloney, and reports, and investigations. I spent five years on the Housing Committee, and honestly to God, I couldn't wait to get off of it. Because if reports, and if investigations, and documents, and bringing in people in force to build houses, we would have supplements of houses in this country, everyone would have a house for themselves. That is the way it would be. But no, that is not really the problem of what is happening. And I have to then address my good friends of the London, of the left, who would like to lecture us all, especially Deputy Paul Murphy and his crew. What do you call them? Everyone that implies someone who has a developing company is a bad person, is a con man, is a robber. That is an awful attitude. And someone needs to get them to rehabilitations to understand what a builder is, and what he does. And we cannot have houses without builders. And then to get the lecture from the Labour Party, who abolished town councils, and ringing their fingers now about the end of the day, that again, some of our cowboy builders are going to take advantage of what we are doing. We live in the real world. This is an honest effort, and our motion, to try and get people in rural areas to solve part of the housing crisis. Not to be negative all the time. We were putting forward a process of proposal. I have at least ten people in South Tipperary, who have log cabins, one shape or another built. One poor man is in a separation situation, managed break-up. The house had to be sold. He got a mobile home, bought a site, put it onto it, and he built the most spectacular log finish all around it. Now enforcement notice dragged through the courts. He asked me, where is he going to go? Down under the main garden, and I met with the other homeless people. And there are several cases. I have another young barber, who got one up here in County Wicklow, he bought it. He put it behind his father and mother's house, very delicately and sensibly placed, and fitted into the landscape. He is going out at the same entrance all his life. Oh, did he have a problem with the entrance? He is going out there anyway every day. He is into his own sewer system, which is going there anyway every day. So, looking for problems. TII and NRA. We decommissioned the IRA. We can't decommission the NRA. We can't get rid of them. And then we added the TII down on top of them. And I am not going to call them any good people out of them as well, but the power they have is simply astounding. And the dictates that they give to councils, they want to build their roads, or they want to do this, not that. It's like the man one time, he was dating two different women in my parish. They are all dead now, I can say it. And he went to the stage this night, to the stage at Ballard McCabry. Can I talk about yourself? No, I am not. The stage at this is a photo photo. And one of them was catty and one of them was kitty. They have all gone to eternal reward. And none of them turned up that night and said, I have neither kitty, nor a cat tonight. I have no body of myself. The TII want everything. They want to build the roads. And Minister Ryan will come and talk to me. She knows some of the folklore from Dipperary. Her mother has been from Dipperary as well. But anyway, the TII want to build the roads. And they sterilise a five kilometre wide area of it. And you can't build a hill house. You could hardly put up a flag today of a match, but we can't go to see the match now. Or we can't see the television. With the more corporate engagement that you have here, it's shocking what you're presiding over here in this government. It's a move away from the rural people. I don't know who reminded you of an old woman living beside the Bolero's house and brewery. And all the old people that we represent. And they lived in hovels. And they built in real big families of ten and twelve and fourteen. And no bathrooms. And now there are four bathrooms over the big houses and no children. And if you got your way, there would be no people in rural Ireland. We want to say proudly that we are supporting people living in rural Ireland. We're not for breaking any laws. We want sensible moratoriums to be given to people for the log cabins. And they're being added quality. And they're all sustainable and environmentally friendly. And a moratorium here, give us a chance. I can remember here when you close all the bed sets in Dublin. The present year government, a different government, an act of leniency. Because over a thousand people had roofs over their heads that didn't have the night after. All mad watch for this legislation. But the same people now on the left that were clamoring that these weren't suitable. They were covering people. People had roofs over their heads. So we've all legislation now. And we've all the pious platitudes. And then the objections to all the houses is sickening by certain people in here. And they don't want the kitty or the catty. They never have anything because they don't understand the value of work. They don't understand what a shovel is. They don't know what a foundation is. They don't know what a mic is. They don't know what a block is. They don't know what a roof tile is. And they don't care either. But we care. And just because some of us might be involved in construction, we get demonised as cowboys and self-interest. Our interest is to house our people. A noble gesture that Liam Lynch died a hundred years ago for. Michael Collins and all our forefathers, Paddy Pearce and all, the right to self-determination, a home, and to live and eat out a bit of land on our farm, a small farm with everything. McNamara said it there as well. 48th is not viable now anymore. It's the hell out of Dublin now. We're not Clannock. The hell out of Dublin in here with all the problems that we have. And then on top of it all, we decide to bring open borders, bring in 200,000, quarter of a million. On top of it. My goodness. The million in the white coats would have come here long ago if things hadn't changed. It closed all the mental institutions. And they'd have a lot of us gone out of this place and gone off and put somewhere that we would be taught to think. And taught to think of the unanticipated consequences of legislation that passed here and Clannock looking for here and the folly of it all. Let the people of rural Ireland build our houses, who are able to do – not asking the state for anything, only for documents, as Deputy Healy Way said – to give them planning. I'm not saying reckless planning. Give them a moratorium. Allow them to house themselves. Allow them to contribute to their schools, their G8 clubs, soccer clubs, churches, mass meetings, whatever, political parties. Ye won't have any money because they'll never know where to live. And they won't be at home for candles for ye. And what will be at home will be waiting for the long grass when it grows. And ye'll be waiting for ye. And the Pion Louis will be sharp. And they'll be ever or not put down behind your names. And why wouldn't they? Because ye had not and zero interest in them. You're elected to represent them, but you're more interested to represent global politics now, not the people of rural Ireland. I commend and I'm pushing this motion to vote.