Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief. I wish to reiterate the points made by Deputies Ó Broin, Boyd Barrett and Cian O'Callaghan. With the policy under this Government and the previous Government, which the Minister's party supported, we have seen house prices increase, rents increase and the housing crisis get worse for people trying to get affordable accommodation either to purchase or rent. These are the facts and there is no disputing that. In Cork North-Central house prices are increasing each year and so are rents. Bringing private developers in to develop public lands will only make matters worse. These amendments propose that public land should be used for public houses. These are scarce resources. This land is badly needed to deliver homes for people who need them.

Along with Deputy Ó Laoghaire, I attended a housing meeting last night in Cork at which Deputy Ó Broin spoke. One lady described how she has rented a house for herself, her husband and her four children. They were hoping to buy but they have been renting for 11 years. Because the rents are so high, they have paid the private landlord more than €100,000 and they are not one step closer to buying - in fact they are worse off now. They have been given notice to quit and have five months to find a home.

This is all as a direct result of Government policies introduced by the past few Governments and which the Minister will now enshrine in this legislation. For that lady, her husband and their children, and everyone else like them, we are asking the Minister to accept our amendments because we need to deliver public homes on public land. That is what we are here to do. Those are the fundamentals of where we are.