Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)

I wish to share time with Deputies Seán Crowe, Jonathan O'Brien, Pádraig Mac Lochlainn, Michael Colreavy and Martin Ferris.

Earlier this year, the Minister of State with special responsibility for housing, Deputy Willie Penrose, launched a housing policy statement. It proclaimed an intention to radically change public housing in Ireland but it set out nothing of the sort. Beneath the mealy-mouthed rhetoric were more of the failed policies of Fianna Fáil which had allowed social housing stock to dwindle and deteriorate. One policy which was not new but which was to be pursued with renewed vigour was the shifting of responsibility for housing our citizens further away from the Government and into the hands of the voluntary sector. This is bad government and a blatant shirking of its duty by this Government. It has been made even worse in light of the Government extension of the austerity it has wrought on the ordinary struggling people. It has heaped this arduous task on voluntary organisations, one they cannot hope to deliver.

Fine organisations such as Respond, Threshold and many others, are being charged with providing housing but with less funding. Where does the Government think this money will come from? It is quick to pass the buck but even quicker to slash with the knife. Social housing is continuing to be abandoned by the State and these cuts to the voluntary sector show that the Government does not consider the housing of its citizens to be a priority or even an issue. It is more important to our Government to receive the pat on the head from the Troika than to serve its citizens and to respect their rights.

Respond has called for a reallocation of NAMA funds to the voluntary housing sector. This would be a positive action but the social dividend promised from NAMA must be part of the State provision of social housing in order to meet the great need which persisted through the boom years but which was ignored. It has now been ignored for very different reasons but ignored, nonetheless. The NAMA project must support housing for the most disadvantaged and marginalised citizens who have been denied this right. It must support people living in completely unacceptable conditions, such as in Dolphin House and St. Teresa's Gardens. It must support regeneration which has been stalled in places like O'Devanney Gardens, Ballymun and Limerick. It must do so with a dedicated Government strategy of public provision as a matter of right.

My own community will feel these cuts very hard. Over the past number of years there has been a sustained attack on community and voluntary groups throughout the State. These attacks have been justified on the grounds that the economic quagmire in which we find ourselves requires it. My own area of Dublin North West has been badly hit with the loss of community projects and workers on the ground in Ballymun, Finglas, Santry and Whitehall. Luckily we have a large number of voluntary groups, residents associations and volunteers who contribute an untold wealth of experience and help to fill the void that has been created by these cutbacks already imposed. This sector supports approximately 50,000 full-time jobs and a large number of part-time jobs, as well as thousands of volunteers. Year after year, the drugs task force has faced cuts of from 10% to 13% in its funding. This has resulted in a serious loss of projects and staff to deal with the crisis of drugs in our community. It is also a serious blow to those looking for help and rehabilitation as a result of addiction. The Finglas-Cabra drugs task force is one of the lowest funded in the State, yet we have one of the worst areas in terms of needs.

Community projects which employ people on CE schemes are also under attack. The Den and the Finglas Youth Resource Centre in Finglas, the CDP in Ballymun and the Ballymun Community Network are all bearing the brunt of these austerity policies. Can the Government not see the road these cuts are leading us down in pursuit of the economy? Once more, the Government is abandoning the community. We still do not have enough funding to deal with the serious issue of suicide. More resources are needed to highlight and extend round the clock services for people at risk of taking their lives. These cuts leave desperate people in even more desperate situations. The result is easy to see and is devastating to our communities and families. If the Government fails our communities, our most vulnerable and our most marginalised, it throws a generation on the scrap heap and shows it has learned nothing and never will.

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