Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

As I was saying, I am sure the Minister is familiar with the plays of Seán O'Casey, in which he depicted the squalid tenements and poverty-ridden conditions of working class people at the beginning of the century. I put it to the Minister that the Government's cuts in rent allowance and the new housing policy threaten a return to those slum tenement conditions we thought we had left behind.

This week in the Visitors Gallery, I have about 30 families who are threatened with homelessness or who have been made homeless a result of the cuts in the rent allowance cap. It would not be a problem if the Government provided council housing for the 96,000 people on the council housing list. However, in June of last year, without making any public announcement, the Government decided to abandon the direct provision of council housing. As a result, no council housing will be directly provided by local authorities in the future. It is a veritable counter-revolution in social housing policy.

See this speech in context