Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Nobody doubts that this is a serious challenge, but for a number of years most Government action, of this and the previous Government, was geared by a neo-liberal ideology. That is part of this scene. When the Minister said he was introducing a housing strategy, I thought we would get a real housing strategy, but what he has given us is a budget plan. What has he done about rent control. In Germany, rent is linked to inflation. Here it seems it is linked to the sky. Rent has gone up 30% in two years.

The Government seems prepared to walk away from interference in the private market. What is the Minister doing about quality social housing and about where it is being built? Half of the young people looking for housing in Ireland in the next ten years will be looking for social housing, because they will not be able to afford to buy homes. The buying of homes by young people will be a thing of the past.

What are we doing about land banking and about developer-led planning? What are we going to do about ghettoisation? These are all issues I thought were going to be part of the Government's housing strategy. The Minister can talk all he likes but the Government is not dealing in a holistic manner with the challenges of housing in Ireland.

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