I take issue with what Senator Brian Ó Domhnaill said about the current housing policy. I agree and accept that we need to have a more comprehensive debate on the issue of housing, but there are a few points to remember. We would now have 25,000 extra social housing units if Fianna Fáil had not rowed back on Part V of the Planning and Development Act. We would not have bankrupt developers had it not been for the collapse of the economy under Fianna Fáil’s leadership. We would not have a banking system that will not lend to those developers who survived the crash if the banking system had not collapsed under a Fianna Fáil Government.

The bottom line remains, as the Governor of the Central Bank, Mr. Honohan, said at the finance committee, that there is an equity gap. It is a major issue that developers can only borrow approximately 60% of the funds they need in order to construct the numbers of units we require. The proposal - the accuracy of which we do not know, as I only read about it in this morning's edition of the Irish Independent - does suggest the Government is going to take steps to address the equity gap which developers face. We had a construction sector that constituted 20% of the economy - way above a healthy percentage for such a sector in any developed economy - which collapsed to 5%. If the sector is to return to a normal rate of 10% or 11%, this or another Government will have to help it. That is a fact.

The market will rebalance itself. Government intervention is absolutely not warranted.

There has been no suggestion-----

The Senator contradicts herself-----

Senator Aideen Hayden to continue, without interruption.

There has been no suggestion whatsoever that the proposed measures will take away from the social housing programme. The social housing programme has been announced and funding secured. It is the most adventurous social housing programme in the history of the State dating back to 1922. It is something of which the Government can be very proud.

I will conclude with some figures taken from the report issued yesterday by the ESRI. It shows that in some urban schools, one in particular, up to 12% of the children were experiencing homelessness. This is the position in a number of urban schools. This is our last opportunity in advance of the budget to ask that a strong message be sent to those who are controlling the purse strings to ensure every homeless child will receive the education that he or she needs and deserves.

I believe we should have a serious debate in this House, whatever is contained in the budget next week, on those who are homeless and on housing waiting lists. There is not going to be a quick fix.

Whatever one says about what happened five, ten or 12 years ago, the reality is that the budget and the forthcoming general election, regardless of whether it will be held, as Fine Gael wishes, on 20 November or, as the Labour Party would like, in late February or early March, the Labour Party will be judged on the merits of what has been delivered. Let us face reality. I have been in this House for a long time and spent some years in this city as a student. I have never seen the homelessness problem in Dublin as serious as it is now. It is at crisis point. The provision of social housing not just in Dublin but throughout the country has been at a standstill. The number on the housing waiting list is so severe that no measures the Government might introduce in the forthcoming budget will come anywhere near solving it in the short term. In the past three years the problem has got more acute.

Throughout the country there are empty houses. NAMA which, in effect, is a State agency has scores of houses and estates that are unfinished. Something serious needs to be done to address the housing crisis. There is no point in saying, "Fianna Fáil did this and we did that." The Government has had almost a five-year tenure. In many instances, both in this and the other House, my party has co-operated with and endorsed some of the policies the Government introduced. However, we cannot endorse or condone the serious problem for those on housing waiting lists, with people living in cars, bed and breakfast accommodation and hotels in this city. It is a really serious issue that will jump up and bite Fine Gael and the Labour Party in the forthcoming general election. It is very sad.

The Government side should reflect on a report on property by Mr. Justice Kenny in the mid-1970s and eke away at the notion of a society with haves and have-nots. The Kenny report was put on the shelf and ignored by the then Fine Gael-Labour Party coalition in the mid-1970s. My party in power ignored it and it may be about time for our society to seriously consider the progression of property rights. I am not against that notion, but we must consider the exigencies of the common good and bring balance to the debate about property. It may be necessary to revisit the Kenny report or even tweak the Constitution to ensure citizens do not face decades without a home, as that would be a society that was going down the wrong road.