Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Our Uachtarán was right. This is no longer a housing emergency; this is a housing disaster. I was there when he spoke in Naas in my constituency in north Kildare last month and his words really crackled like electricity in people.

One person who lived those words is a spokesperson for Focus Ireland, Ms Kelly Anne Byrne, who addressed us in Maynooth last week at a Raise the Roof public meeting. She was electrifying too but it was traumatic to have to listen to her - she has given me permission to speak here about it. Ms Byrne spoke of the chaos, the terror of not having a place for herself and her children as a young mother, and how her life and the lives of her children changed dramatically once they found a decent place to live. I wish the Minister could have heard her speak of the small, but essential, joy it is to be able to come home and to close your door on the world and enjoy your dignified private life in your dignified private space.

The difference between Sinn Féin and the Government is that we believe that housing is a right. It is a right to be secured under a referendum and a right to be enjoyed regardless of income because every person needs a home. Only in this State and the absolute state the Government has made of governing, hard work, a good job, a degree, a deposit, savings and a mortgage are no longer enough to buy a home. Thanks to too much Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party, one now needs a wealth fund or an inheritance to buy a small three-bedroom semi-detached house. By what measure and in whose world is that progress? This is unfair. It is unsustainable and unjust to the hardworking people who only want an affordable home to rent or buy, if they are happy to pay.

There is a certain political mindset in the Government that believes some people get free houses but the only people getting free houses in Kildare are the developers. The local authority hands back the houses to them after a 25-year lease, all paid for and all redone at the taxpayers' expense, with the tenants homeless again. No society gets away unscathed from treating so many people so badly while at the same time protecting and venerating the privileged few. Leonard Cohen sang a song,

There is a crack ... in everything

That's how the light gets in

I ask people to join their local Raise the Roof group, raise the roof and let some light in on the Minister's disastrous housing policy.

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