Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

We will see. Much as the Minister can get the laughter and he is a very witty character, there is no doubt about it. The problem is that Ireland is the laughing stock of the international scene because we record growth rates which bear absolutely no relation to the real economy or the lived reality of human beings in Ireland. I would not say they would be sharing the joke. In fact they are not sharing it. It is certainly not delivering in the area of affordable rental accommodation and there is nothing to laugh at there. If the Minister is suggesting that it is, that is laughable. That is the thrust of our opposition to several sections, we think this is a misguided use of available revenues to continue to give them to developers and landlords rather than put what resources we have into the direct construction and provision of local authority housing and affordable schemes of various kinds.