Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

No one said that.

The Minister of State is avoiding my question. I want to get an overall picture of the number of households with a housing need. How many households cannot meet their housing needs from their own resources? For a long time, the Minister of State has farmed out all kinds of figures to mislead the public on this question. He has done so again today. The 60,000 households on rent allowance have a housing need. According to the Minister of State's answer, there are 30,000 households on housing lists but not on rent allowance. That makes 90,000 households. Is 90,000 the totality?

Is the Minister of State happy at that net result? If not the final sitting day of this Dáil, it is the last day on which we will have environment questions. On the final day on which the Minister of State answers to the House for the stewardship of his ten-year-old Government, is he satisfied that 90,000 households in the State cannot meet their housing needs from their own resources? Of those households, 60,000 are in receipt of rent allowance and 30,000 are waiting on local authority housing lists.

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