Mattie McGrath condemns 'organised mayhem' in housing system
Mattie McGrath criticised the state of housing delivery, calling the system "organised mayhem" and arguing that billions spent on the Hap scheme should have gone to public housing. He called for local authorities to be empowered to build, defended small voluntary housing associations, and accused central agencies of systemic failure.
The speaker said the Custom House is riddled with deep rot and systematic failures that block action, arguing elected ministers do not challenge secretaries general and that bureaucracy preserves fiefdoms. He called for the Custom House to be dismantled and suggested repurposing it, for example as a homeless shelter, to remove institutional barriers to housing delivery.
Drawing on his experience as chair of a voluntary housing association that built 17 houses, he described delays, ‘‘suffocation’’ and the need to pass paperwork through multiple departments. He criticised requirements for repeated design teams and consultants even for small local authority projects and said the process keeps people in jobs rather than delivering homes.
He praised small voluntary housing associations and warned that panels such as the "panel of Peter McFerry" turned into conglomerates that squeezed out local groups. He said one voluntary scheme he was involved in remains in pristine condition and residents are happy, illustrating that smaller local projects can succeed where larger agencies fail.
The speaker urged that local authorities be given powers to build and maintain housing, lamenting the loss of local maintenance teams after restructuring. He pointed to examples like the deterioration of flats in Ballymun and criticised organisations named in the speech, including Irish water and "Bort Van Alla", as symptomatic of a system that needs common-sense reform.
He condemned what he called the Hap disaster and billions misspent, and criticised new appointments with big offices and teams who do little. He warned that changing names or creating new roles will not cure the systemic rot unless powers and practical authority are returned to local builders and authorities.
Systemic failure at the Custom House
The speaker said the Custom House is riddled with deep rot and systematic failures that block action, arguing elected ministers do not challenge secretaries general and that bureaucracy preserves fiefdoms. He called for the Custom House to be dismantled and suggested repurposing it, for example as a homeless shelter, to remove institutional barriers to housing delivery.
Bureaucracy and delays hindering building
Drawing on his experience as chair of a voluntary housing association that built 17 houses, he described delays, ‘‘suffocation’’ and the need to pass paperwork through multiple departments. He criticised requirements for repeated design teams and consultants even for small local authority projects and said the process keeps people in jobs rather than delivering homes.
Support for local voluntary housing and criticism of large agencies
He praised small voluntary housing associations and warned that panels such as the "panel of Peter McFerry" turned into conglomerates that squeezed out local groups. He said one voluntary scheme he was involved in remains in pristine condition and residents are happy, illustrating that smaller local projects can succeed where larger agencies fail.
Calls to devolve powers and tackle maintenance
The speaker urged that local authorities be given powers to build and maintain housing, lamenting the loss of local maintenance teams after restructuring. He pointed to examples like the deterioration of flats in Ballymun and criticised organisations named in the speech, including Irish water and "Bort Van Alla", as symptomatic of a system that needs common-sense reform.
Concerns about wasted spending and new appointments
He condemned what he called the Hap disaster and billions misspent, and criticised new appointments with big offices and teams who do little. He warned that changing names or creating new roles will not cure the systemic rot unless powers and practical authority are returned to local builders and authorities.
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Transcript
I too want to support this motion today and how many more motions are we going to have and how many more debates are we going to have to try and get some realism and reality into the disaster situation where we find ourselves in a grab of housing. And I think it's just, you know, it's organised mayhem, that's what it is. And every speaker and every speaker I had a chat last night with my colleague in South Tipperary, housing is the number one issue and our clinics are bogged down and there's so little we can do, there's so little output. The whole Hap disaster, that billions are spent on that, that should have been spent on public housing, but we lost our way there as well. But I want to say during the War of Independence, the Custom House was demolished under attack. I don't want anyone to be injured now, but the Custom House has to be dismantled and the deep rot and failures, systematic failures that are in there are just, you know, intolerable at this stage. What kind of a democracy have we, an elected democracy that we can't have ministers that will challenge it and will challenge the Secretary Generals and I'm not pestle against anything, but they are under fiefdoms. And I'm experiencing the game, skin in the game here, because I was chair of a voluntary housing association who built 17 houses, 14 and 3, and I saw all the delays and the suffocation and the six different departments all over the country that you have to pass paper around to, keeping people in jobs, doing paperwork, and if we want to build 3 local authority houses or 4, we have to get a design team and we have to get consultants to design them. Why can't we have the same schemes just to adapt them to the sites? It's a poor racket. And this is going on and on and on and on and no sign of it changing. So ministers, and we've had more housing ministers and so I came in here now than we have many hot dinners and they all did their best, but it's utter failure. And Einstein said that the definition of madness and sanity was doing the same thing over and over again and expecting to get a different result. And this is what's happening here. And we had this nice new acronym, this new fellow has been brought in to move mountains, another job, with a brass plate and a big office and a team of people under them and do nothing. So let the local authorities give them the powers to build. When we had a borough district council in Thonmel which was abolished from the Fine Gael under that wasteful plan they had of putting people first, it put people last. We had a team and I want to salute them in the past of builders and maintenance men and the stock was being maintained. Now they're one person in the whole borough of Thonmel. So that's not good enough. I speak of Dublin and allude us to the flats in Ballymun and how they're the same in Germany and they're in pristine condition and now some are demolished and falling down. They're not being maintained and people haven't been encouraged to have pride in their houses either. That wonderful scheme cost our new voluntary housing association that I was involved in and still involved in and spoke to the chairman on the phone on the phone about something. It's in pristine condition. The residents are really happy and the little niggly bits they always will be and it was one of the most joyous things I was ever involved in. So we can support the voluntary housing the small voluntary housing association not the panel of Peter McFerry who turned into conglomerates and many more of these housing agencies they've turned into huge and I was on the national body for a number of years so I know they took control of that put the clause around it and squished out the ordinary local voluntary organisations and that's not acceptable. So we need to massively think dismantle the custom house make it into maybe a homeless shelter or something get out the mandalins out of there and get some common sense in there and allow builders are out there ringing me every day of the week we have Irish water we have planning we have Bort Van Alla I got a call last night Bort Van Alla Inspector did a report using chat GBT imagine imagine where are we going to end up next now we've changed the name I love the Gaelic like yourself but changing the name isn't good enough when there's a systemic rot in those organisations in the custom house and in Bort Van Alla I love the Gaelic I love the Gaelic