RENUA Ireland leader John Leahy has warned that the government must not allow a proposed new semi-state company for housing turn into another quango.
‘‘The last thing the Irish housing crisis needs is another taxpayer sponsored quango,’’ he said.
Mr Leahy was responding to reports that the government is considering establishing a new semi-state company to drive house building across the country.
‘‘There are so many quangos in Custom House at the moment the Minister for Housing is unable to count them,” he said.
“Before election 2011, Fine Gael in a stunt unveiled a new game called ‘whack a quango’.
“Since they have come into office, however, quangos, particularly in housing, have proliferated like rabbits in the summer. Instead of the promised cull, quangos have prospered under this government.
“Who wants or needs another HSE, or an Irish Water for housing? This is more of passing the book, farming out the problem and sending the fool further, instead of taking responsibility and getting on with the job of building houses,” he said
There are already enough entities in place in the public, private and voluntary sector to build affordable and social homes, he said.
“In many instances they are being impeded from doing so. The last thing those saving for a home or languishing on a waiting list, or living in hotel rooms with their children need is another semi-state company,” insisted Cllr Leahy.
‘‘This is more of the politics of all theory and no action from this government. It is another substitute for action. How long will it take for example to set up this quango? How much will it cost? Another Irish Water fiasco if I ever heard of one,’ he said.’
‘‘I am even more astonished that they are using Irish Water as a template. This is hardly an action that will build confidence. This proposed housing quango is another castle being built on sand and down the road you will have a flurry of TDs and Ministers coming out washing their hands and distancing themselves from yet another disaster in a manner that would put Pontius Pilot to shame.
‘‘Are the government aware that the cost of bureaucratic empire building is great human misery for working people who are being priced out of the rental market, the social housing market and the private home-owning market?’’
The RENUA Ireland leader said, ‘‘the best solution to our housing crisis is to create the scenario where builders, who know how to build houses, can build.”
He said the Minister should convene a day-long emergency summit of our top ten construction companies and ask them what do they require?
“Housing policy should be driven by practical people who know how to build houses and what a concrete lorry looks like rather than more bureaucrats who don hard hats for a day and then disappear back to the shelter of their quango,” he said.
