Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Just a week ago the Constitutional Convention voted overwhelmingly to enshrine the right to housing in Bunreacht na hÉireann. This has long been Sinn Féin's position and, while welcoming that decision wholeheartedly, we call on the Government to move forward on the issue. The Labour Party and Fine Gael are failing to protect and uphold the right to housing. There are almost 90,000 families on housing waiting lists around the country, which equates to almost 200,000 men, women and children in desperate need of housing and secure accommodation. There are also 5,000 homeless people. Despite this, only 29 homes were built for social housing purposes in Dublin last year. There are 16 newly homeless families in Dublin every week but the Government has nevertheless claimed it will end homelessness by 2016. It is either naive beyond belief or it is lying. NAMA, which has been proposed as a solution to housing shortages, has delivered fewer than 500 homes out of a promised 4,000.

Despite what some might say, it gives me no great pleasure to say these things. I would be very happy if I did not receive calls every day from new people at risk of losing their rented homes, languishing on huge waiting lists or living in crumbling housing in desperate need of refurbishment while local authority homes lie idle with no money for repairs. This is unfortunately the case. The Minister stood here this morning and quoted figures showing great boosts in spending, but we have heard such figures before and they never seem to really materialise. We know for certain that the housing budget has been cut by over €1 billion since 2008, and in 2013 the Government, in its wisdom, decided to cut a further €58 million from housing for 2014.

The effects of these cuts are much more tangible than the promises of the Minister.

This morning I dealt with a woman whose rent had been raised by nearly one third, way above rent supplement limits. She has lost that home and is now living in Cavan where she cannot afford the rent while she waits tenth in line to be housed in Finglas. She cannot obtain rent supplement in Cavan or she will lose her place and be stranded, away from her family. I recently dealt with a family who for four months had been living in a hotel, having been made homeless. They had been requested, at very short notice, to leave the hotel that day. As they lugged their possessions around town seeking a place to stay and awaiting a call from the homeless section of the council, I called everyone I could to ensure they had a roof over their heads that night.

This is the story of the Government's housing policy and its abject failure to address the housing crisis. No plan has been put in place with local authorities to significantly boost social housing numbers. Instead, the Government is talking about removing responsibility from developers to provide social housing, quoting imaginary job figures it has produced in the style of an Anglo Irish banker. It needs to build more social housing, using funds from the European Investment Bank, as we have often suggested. I am told it is applying for this only now, three years after taking office. We need to use social housing bonds and local authority trusts to allow councils to raise funds to build more stock, as and when it is needed. The Government has no problem with this policy. It states it will do nothing about it, despite a commitment in its programme. We need to allow councils to purchase houses in unfinished estates where this would release the bond, allowing an estate to be completed and providing much needed social and affordable housing.

The Labour Party has made much of its success in stopping the trend of cutting funds for the homeless by the Government, but funding is only part of the picture, as its programme recognises, stating "prevention is better than cure". The Labour Party has directly contributed to homelessness. The Government has increased rent supplement contributions, cut rent supplement, the dole for younger people, child benefit, payments to single mothers and other supports. The Labour Party has failed to protect rental accommodation scheme tenants who are being evicted by greedy landlords watching rents soar for just €50 or €100. These are the causes of homelessness. Water charges will also make it harder to keep one's home. Tackling these causes would help prevent homelessness. Sinn Féin agrees with the policy of housing-led and housing-first approaches, but they can only really work when the State is willing to provide adequate housing and no longer relies on the private market. The stagnation in the development of residential properties is, in part, due to the rental market being so incredibly profitable. It is also under-regulated, as there is no deposit retention scheme and the Private Residential Tenancies Board has been given more work for less pay, which appears to be the new Labour Party motto. There is still time for the Government to make a real difference, but it would require an about-turn, as we are in a real crisis. We need radical action, not massaged figures. Focus Ireland, Threshold and other groups tell us this is a human disaster in the making and it is on our doorstep.

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