Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

One would not know it from the Minister of State's speech but Fine Gael has been in government for 12 years and Fianna Fáil has been propping it up for seven years. Their record is a housing crisis which has gone from bad to worse. Since this particular coalition with the Green Party was cobbled together the facts speak for themselves: house prices have increased by 28% and rents have increased by 25%, or €3,700 per year. Homelessness, including child homelessness, has increased by 47%. Government targets are too low and in every single instance the Government is missing those targets.

There is a huge cost to all of this failure and incompetence. That cost is being paid in particular by entire generations who have lost any hope of living in their own home and who are instead living in a vicious cycle of rising rents. Apart from the devastating personal impact that has been borne by those directly affected, there is also a wider societal cost. That cost is deeply felt within our public services. It is felt in the schools that cannot employ the teachers they need, the hospitals that cannot employ the healthcare staff they need, Garda stations, Defence Forces' barracks and social care centres, none of which can employ the numbers they need because those who are qualified and who want to fill those roles cannot afford places to live. Increasingly, we are seeing that the cost of Government failure is impacting on investment and competitiveness in the private sector as well. Companies, big and small, in virtually every city, town, and village across the State are struggling to find staff because those staff cannot find affordable places to live.

There are not many certainties in this world but one certainty is that the longer Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are in government, the worse the housing crisis will get. Another certainty is that if we get the chance, Sinn Féin will move heaven and earth to undo the damage that the Government has caused. We will set the right targets for social and affordable housing. We will allocate the necessary funding to deliver that housing. We will introduce the necessary reforms to fast-track that delivery and, most important, we will build the affordable houses that our young people need. Above all, we will swap the Government excuses for actions that will once and for all resolve the housing crisis that is getting worse every single day the Minister of State is in government. The Government has had enough chances and it has failed every single one of them. It is now time for change.

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