Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity for the House to focus on people whose lives are literally falling apart outside these doors because they cannot find a home, cannot find security, and therefore, cannot find stability. What I hear from people, which I am sure many Members also hear day and day out, is "we have no home, we have no hope". What they have in abundance due to years of lack of supply of housing is frustration and anger and they are riddled with fear about what is going to happen them, their children and their relationships. Families are trapped in one room in emergency accommodation, there is a waiting list for access and the numbers keep rising.

One affordable housing purchase scheme has been approved to date by the Government in County Clare. It consists of ten units in Shannon. When it was announced months ago, I said that it equated to one house for every 1,000 of the population in Shannon. As we know, it has now exceeded 10,000. I am aware of two further applications. I know the Minister is aware of the number of parliamentary questions I submitted on the matter in recent months to ascertain whether the applications had been received by his Department from Clare County Council and whether they had been approved. I would have thought that this would have been fast tracked and expedited - whatever it would take to get this moving instead of months of going backwards and forwards - so it would be great to get clarification from the Minister if he comes back for the second round or the closing statement.

In October 2023, the Minister stated that he was open to extending the scheme beyond Ennis and Shannon to west and north Clare. These areas that have seen few, if any, new housing developments - in some cases, for decades. In light of that being six months ago, I was hoping that the Minister might provide some clarification about that.

I wish to raise the matter of a 30-unit social housing proposal for Ennistymon that received pre-planning funding approval from the Department in October 2022. It is now being paused due to infrastructural water constraints. What is going to be done there? Many towns and villages in County Clare have the same constraints.

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