The Tánaiste expressed horror about water going through lead pipes. I assure her that when all the water meters are in place, most of those lead pipes will still be there.

You should know.

I want to discuss housing, which is an incredibly big problem for this country in many ways. Poor people live in poor areas. Poor housing policy intensifies social and economic disadvantage. We have problems with planning, which has been market- and developer-led for a long time. There is a shadow planning system whereby the big players observe a different set of rules. There is a particular rhetoric pertaining to the social good, but the reality is different. For a long time, this State has promoted social exclusion and segregation because it helped to keep property prices up. There was no interest in refurbishment and renewal. There is only interest in big sites because they are what the developers like and where they can make more money.

The State can play a part in addressing that issue. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, expressed yesterday some reservations about the site value tax which has been tossed around for the last while. This is at the core of a great many of our problems with housing in Ireland. It will be madness if the Government fails to address the issue. To provide a small example, I bought a fifth of an acre in 1997 for £150,000 but seven years later in 2004, I paid €5 million for a fifth of an acre. It was a 30-fold increase. That happened because the State is dominated by people who bank land and sell it when they think it is a good time to do so. They will hold on to it when it suits them. The notion of not taxing that asset which is growing in value is outrageous.

Does the Deputy have a question?

The private sector is as problematic as the social sector. There is no rental security for people. We have just seen the Central Bank come up with new mortgage rules - three and a half times one's wages and a 20% deposit. We can see that three and a half times one's wages is a good measure to ensure that people can repay, but what does the 20% deposit mean? How many of our children will be able to afford to get on the home ownership ladder? A great many Irish people will not own homes in future and social housing will have to become the order of the day. It is great that the Government has started to spend some money on it, but it is only scratching the surface. There will have to be a massive investment from the State in this area. The idea that social housing is only for the poor must go. We must build quality social housing with all the necessary surrounding facilities for at least half the people in the years ahead.

I will come back to the Deputy.

My question is to the Tánaiste.

The Deputy is way over time.

Is the Tánaiste prepared to fight for a site tax and is she prepared to act on rent control? Only today, Fr. McVerry is saying that the fact that we have not done anything about rent control is driving people into homelessness. The Government has still not done anything about it.

I am delighted that the budget provides for a capital investment of €2.2 billion in social housing provision over the next three years. I thank Deputy Wallace for acknowledging that. The plan will involve investing €1.5 billion directly from the Exchequer with public private partnerships and off-balance sheet vehicles to get approximately €400 million more in by 2017. There will also be an off-balance sheet financial vehicle to provide another €400 million from 2015 onwards to approved housing bodies, of which Deputy Wallace will know there are quite a few in Wexford. Approved housing bodies have provided good social housing for people including very often those with specific needs and requirements and older people. I have seen commentators from every part of the spectrum welcome strongly this budgetary provision. It is the way to go.

In relation to the Central Bank consultation, I stress that the bank is independent. Part of the reason for the crash in the building industry was tax breaks for investment in property. Deputy Wallace has seen more than most of us of the ups and downs of the property game. Many people who worked hard lost everything. However, we must learn from that lesson. It is important to have prudential regulation which we did not have at the height of the period of the boom. As with all booms, the behaviour then was irresistible and it was only when there was a crash that people could look back and say we did not do it right. The income limit the Central Bank proposes is reasonable. On the issue of the deposit, I have heard many organisations and individuals make comments querying that. It is a public consultation process and it is open to every Member, party and grouping in the House to put forward their views on this to the Central Bank. It is important outside of party politics that people give the Central Bank the benefit of their views and expertise in the area. I recommend strongly that people do that.

I strongly support the development of social housing. I agree with Deputy Wallace that we do not want to go back to the enormous local authority estates of 650 houses. In my constituency, there are 2,500 local authority houses. They are very good quality houses and often better than some of the buildings put up at the height of the boom as they were built and supervised by local authorities. However, we want to see mixed housing with people of all incomes and ages being able to live in their own towns and cities in appropriate, good quality housing that is well insulated and takes into account the climate change issues that face the planet. We need warm insulated homes. We have provided significantly for that since taking office.

It is less than 10% of the housing stock.

The Labour Party has been examining the issue of rent controls. I was brought up in a rented home, which is something I am not sure many Members were. While it is a very good way to provide homes for families, those families need security of tenure. Traditionally in Ireland, people want to own their own properties. Young couples who are working and raising families desire ownership of a house, which is a good thing. However, there should be various models available. From the 1960s to the 1980s, the courts struck down in a series of judgments provisions in relation to rent control. While it is something that will have to be examined, the courts at the highest levels have ruled on the matter which meant the old system was dismantled. It is something we will need to address as a society.

As the Tánaiste mentioned the issue of the quality of the homes that are to be built, I note that deregulation happened in 1990. The measures introduced by Phil Hogan as Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government to deal with the problems we have seen in construction will do nothing. The Government has still not gone back to inspections. Local authorities inspect between 10% and 15% of built properties and that is usually at only one stage of construction. This is outrageous. If the Government is interested in ensuring that houses are built properly, it must inspect them. Currently, we have the National Housing Authority, local authority housing departments and housing associations. It is all over the shop. There is no housing strategy.

The Tánaiste refers to bringing things in soon and I will be interested to see what that entails, but I suggest that before the Government implements a housing strategy that it reads "Spatial Justice and the Irish Crisis" by Gerry Kearns of NUI Maynooth and his colleagues. They point out that what has added to our problems is the way in which NAMA and the banks have behaved by throwing large quantities of stock onto the market to be bought by investment funds for half their value. That is what has happened.

Hear, hear.

I have said it before. They have sold apartments for €100,000 that could not be built for €200,000. Why the Government did not buy them itself, I do not know. NAMA has behaved like a secret organisation. It is not open to freedom of information and is staffed by bankers and so-called "property experts" who were recruited from the agencies that were bailed out by NAMA itself. Gerry Kearns points out that NAMA has not been charged with addressing issues of spatial justice or the public interest. Will the Tánaiste take on that mantle? We need spatial justice and to place the public interest at the heart of a housing strategy. The Tánaiste did not answer my question about whether she will push for a vacant site value tax. Will she do that in her official capacity?

The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, will launch the housing strategy sometime next week. The launch of this major policy document on social and other housing will be significant. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, is examining the tax arrangements for vacant sites. I will talk to him about it and come back to the Deputy later.

The Deputy asked detailed questions about specific elements of housing regulations. The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, is examining at regulations that impede the ordinary work of those involved in the construction of good quality housing. I will ask him to come back to the Deputy on this issue specifically which is one of concern. On the other hand, rather like the Central Bank, one needs a proper system of regulation and inspection. Someone either buying or renting a house has no serious control over the building project. He or she relies on the planning laws and the inspection and powers of the local authority to be their guardians. I hope that not just the local authorities but also the construction industry have learned from the lessons of the collapse and will be committed to quality building. I also hope they will not leave people in the difficult situations I have seen of problems with the poor quality of building and insulation, particularly noise insulation in apartments. While I will discuss this issue with the Minister, perhaps the Deputy might table a parliamentary question on it to have a more detailed discussion at Question Time with him. It is an important social issue that people have homes and can bring up their children in homes that they can rent on terms they can afford to pay. One of the oldest slogans in Irish politics is, “Security of Tenure”.

Not if one is in the RAS, rental accommodation scheme.

That is an old slogan but still an important one.

The public purse is the way to properly provide for social housing. I know that many Members opposite, some of whom are present, are opposed to taxation of any kind. They say to people there is no need for any taxation, yet they still can have all of the services they want. One cannot have quality public housing without having a sound economy and a structure of finances that allows one to invest.

What about taxing corporations?

Is it the knowledge box?

It is a little like the last discussion. It is not possible to claim that one can have no taxation or charges but one can have the finest of services. It just does not work like that.

No one over here said that it did.

Who said it?

We said, “Do not hammer the poor.”