Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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I heard him talk recently about not throwing money at the economy and using that type of terminology. I am trying to get my head around it. What type of economy do we have when we have a major housing crisis in Galway? Dublin is mentioned frequently but in Galway, people are on a waiting list since 2002 because we have not built a single social house since 2009. I prefer to use the term "public house" because public housing should be available for everybody. Is it good economics that not one social house has been built in Galway when in 2017 we gave €152 million for the housing assistance payment, HAP, scheme? We increased that up to €301 million in 2018. Is that not throwing money at private landlords and vulture funds and overheating the rental market?