I am glad to get the opportunity to speak. I did not think my slot was coming up so soon. It is very tough for young couples now who are trying to purchase, build or hold onto a home. When it comes to building homes in Kerry, there are a lot of people who would build their home if they could get planning permission, but they cannot because of the strict rules with urban-generated pressure. Locals are being denied planning permission without ever coming out of a town. The urban-generated pressure rule was brought in to stop people coming out from urban areas to rural areas, but it is not only doing that; it is stopping locals from getting planning permission on a site they might get from their father, mother or neighbour, which would allow them to be close to home. If they are not the son or daughter of a farmer, they will not be allowed. It is very sad. For the past ten years or more, I have been very angry and upset about banks transferring loans to vulture funds. Whether it is a farm or a house, the receivers come and do their best. In many cases, they have succeeded in selling homes and property whose rightful owners ran into a bit of bother. If a couple got into trouble, I always thought it would be a great idea if the Department of housing or whoever could pay off their mortgage, or whatever it is, and let the young couple or people in trouble rent back the house for a while until they got on their feet again. That is not happening, however. The receivers just do not mind. In many cases, they did not even get court orders to allow them to sell the places. They just went on and sold them. That happened and it was never right. On one of the nights before Christmas, a gang of youngsters came in. Although I call them “youngsters”, they ranged in ages between 28 and 33. There were 17 of them. While they all had good, professional jobs, they felt they could not afford to purchase or build a house in Ireland. They were all leaving their jobs behind to go to Australia. All of them, alongside their boyfriends and girlfriends, were leaving after Christmas to different parts of Australia. The group totalled 17. It is terrible. We are losing very bright, energetic people. It galls me when I hear so much talk about affordable homes. No homes will be affordable until we do something about VAT and the cost of them. We need to do something like that. In England, there is no VAT on building materials. I cannot understand why we cannot either reduce VAT or get rid of it altogether to make building materials affordable. In Kerry, it would mean an awful lot to people if they could get planning permission. We are doing very good with social housing but people who want to build a house are coming up against all of that. They cannot get planning permission or afford a house, despite having good jobs. For example, a couple, one a garda and the other a teacher, cannot afford the houses. I can understand how they run into trouble. It would hurt me very much as well if I thought some of these foreign investors were buying up those types of homes. We must do our level best to ensure that does not happen. We are here invariably every night and day talking about housing. The time for talking has to stop. We will have to do something constructive in this regard. I did not agree with the Bill last week to make people rent out their houses for six years. For those people who own, buy or are trying to pay back a house, it is their constitutional and democratic right to do whatever they like with it. That is how I feel about it and nothing will ever move me from that viewpoint. I have always felt that no one has a right to go through someone’s place, be it a farm or whatever, without their say-so. The same applies to a second home or whatever it is that people are renting out. They should not be forced. There are other ways. We have so many vacant houses. Surely we could entice those houseowners to rent them in some way or other. We must also ensure that we do not lose any more of our people. The Department of housing should step in if a young couple are in trouble and cannot hold onto the house. I am over time.

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