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

Is the sub-committee not failing in its duty? The indicators of squalor and poverty in the 19th and early 20th centuries were lack of access to secure, decent and appropriate housing and clean water, resulting in disease, high infant mortality rates and so forth. That is the direction in which we are currently heading as a result of the fact that the Government is removing the basic and universal right to an affordable and secure roof over one's head and access to clean water. A lack of these basic rights inevitably gives rise to poverty, squalor and social inequality. The Government must refocus its efforts. If the sub-committee is to be taken seriously rather than, as appears to be the case, being seen as mere window-dressing, it must address the issues to which I refer. It is utterly failing to do so at present.

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