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

What I find utterly depressing about this place, this Chamber and even media coverage is that one might, if one bangs one's head off the wall for a couple of years, raise issues relentlessly, as some of us have raised this issue for the past four years, and at one point there might be a few headlines and a grandiose statement from the Government of its intent to solve a problem. For example, in response to one parliamentary question I asked in 2012, the Minister for Social Protection assured me, "There will be no incidence of homelessness due to these changes." Of course, the homelessness crisis spiralled out of control for the next two years, but I am sure there was a headline and an RTE soundbite that the Government was getting on top of the housing crisis. That is the way it works. Every now and again, we get a flash where there is an acknowledgement of the crisis, we get a grandiose announcement and the crisis only gets worse. That is what has happened. All the way along, the Government has been warned, screamed at, pleaded with and urged to deal with this, occasionally it acknowledges there is a crisis, and every now and again there is some initiative and the situation only gets worse.

In the past year the housing list in my area has gone from 4,000 to 5,200, with 100 more applicants per month going onto the list. Homelessness levels have gone through the roof. That, proportionately, for the size of the county, is a bigger increase in the housing list than anywhere else, including Dublin city, because rents are unaffordable and the caps are a joke. Does the Minister know how many council houses - not fictional houses in the HAP scheme, fictional council houses in RAS or leasing schemes, but actual council houses - Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown will build next year? They will build approximately 13 next year.

See this speech in context