We need a housing plan that is going to work. Rents are up sky high and will get higher in March. House prices are up sky high. Evictions are up sky high. There were 15,000 notices to quit and eviction notices in the first nine months of the year. We need a plan that will work. The Department has set out that County Laois has to increase its population by 35% between now and 2030. I see the Minister's plan to roll out infrastructure and I will welcome it if it is done but without the infrastructure in Laois, it will not happen. The northern orbital route in Portlaoise needs to be built to free up land for housing. The bypass in Mountmellick needs to be built. The southern orbital route in Graiguecullen, County Carlow needs to be built. These projects need to be fast tracked or the houses will not be built. This is along with the sewerage plants and water plants that are also needed. Housing targets were missed last year and we were 1,129 short on social housing. Cost-rental housing targets were missed by a country mile. I fully support affordable house purchases and these targets were down by more than 60% and were completely missed. The housing plan has to be accompanied by increasing those targets. We also need standard house plans. I am back to this again. We need the same plans for all counties. We would need seven or eight different types of plans. The officials in the Department will say they use standard design but that is not a standard house plan. We need this if we want to mass produce something that is good quality, produce it quickly and reduce the price. It could reduce the cost between 11% and 16% by cutting out the nonsense of councils having to go to a blank canvas every time and bringing in architects when they want to build a house. Why is this not being done? Why are we not doing mass production? Please row back on the proposal for rent changes in March. The 2% limit will be gone in March and it will be set at market rent. I can see where this is happening in my area already. Changes to tenancies happen more regularly than every six years. The average is two and a half to three years, according to statistics. We need to go back on this again. The Minister will cause more evictions and I plead with him to stop it. Let us mass produce houses. Let us up the target for social houses and row back on the rent proposals for March.

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