Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)

A home in Fianna Fáil thinking, already contaminated by the Progressive Democrats, is an asset and no longer a home in this republic of greed. How can Ireland be the second richest country in the world yet have the second lowest level of social protection in comparison with its European neighbours? Why will the Government not accept a rights-based approach to shelter? Why will it not implement the proposals of the All-Party Committee on the Constitution?

The Minister of State, Deputy de Valera, and her colleagues come to the Galway Races and proclaim,"Isn't Galway really flying? There are cranes everywhere." There are cranes in Cork, Dublin and elsewhere making money for those who have buckets of it already. At the same time, 2,546 families in Galway city have waited six to ten years for a house. Gardaí, teachers and others with moderate incomes are unable to purchase a house there.

The moral challenge for any society is how its economy is regulated. Today, thankfully in Ireland, it is a question of how to distribute the fruits of economic growth. How could the Government have so much wealth and produce so much misery? How could it have such an absence of courage in defining rights? When history judges us it will say that at this time when everything could have been achieved, much damage was done. The damage will have been led by putting housing out of the reach of those who wish to have their basic right to shelter accepted as a principle.

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