Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There is a conflict here. We need to look at the long-term impact on the children who are now being born and those who are growing up in emergency accommodation and unsuitable accommodation. The cost of not investing in housing to provide a home for those children will be huge in the long term. We will have to meet that cost at the same time as all the other costs the Minister mentioned, yet we are in a position to address it now. That is the failing of this fund. In the meantime, we are transferring €1 billion each year to private providers through HAP and RAS and we have absolutely nothing at the end of it. In the same way, we are transferring hundreds of millions to private developers for immigration because we have a developer-led strategy in that area. Political instability and an erosion of social cohesion are happening because we are constraining ourselves in a situation where we have funding to address these issues. By not allowing housing to be explicitly mentioned in the legislation, the Minister is making a major mistake. This needs to be thought through. What is the disadvantage of allowing housing to be explicitly mentioned? Has there been any long-term assessment on this regarding the people who do not have homes?