Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)

The right to a roof over one's head is one of the most basic rights a person should have and it is a right Sinn Féin believes is so important that it should be contained in Bunreacht na hÉireann, the Constitution. No family should be forced to wait for periods of up to seven years on a housing list, as is the case in parts of this city. Nobody should be forced to live in substandard rented accommodation for years because of Government neglect. Nobody should be forced to live on the streets because of Government indifference.

After nine years in Government, during a time of unprecedented economic prosperity, the undeniable fact is that the Government and the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Noel Ahern, have failed. The Minister of State knows he has failed; he is acutely conscious of it. However, rather than face the reality, he turns away and pretends, ostrich-like, that if he refuses to acknowledge the existence of a crisis, it will simply cease to exist.

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