Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

We are being asked today to vote confidence in the Fine Gael-Labour Party Government. I begin by expressing solidarity with the homeless families in Blanchardstown who are currently occupying a NAMA-built home. They stayed there over night and, by their actions, clearly have no confidence in the Taoiseach or his Government.

Last night, I slept on a concrete floor with some of the families who are the victims of this Government's inaction. They asked me to deliver personally to the Taoiseach the message that they have no confidence in him and are now driven to desperation. This Government has done nothing to stop rents escalating, to introduce rent controls or stop repossessions, all of which factors have made tens of thousands of people homeless and left them dumped in hotels for months on end and forgotten. Now, they are saying: "We can't and we won't wait any longer for housing: it's time for you to go."

One woman, who is pregnant, slept in the house last night because she cannot face the idea of her third child being born into hotel life. Another woman who came to this country ten years ago for a better life has had to give up her PhD studies in favour of her child's education because, as she and her child are homeless and living in a hotel, they are miles from her child's school. That woman cried this afternoon while talking to journalists.

The previous Government slowed down council house building. This Government has completely stalled it. It has sat on its hands for two years as this crisis escalated and worsened despite many warnings. During the summer, some Ministers blamed the homeless agencies for not doing enough. Everybody is to blame but this Government. What is the solution? First, something must be done about rents. The Government has being talking for more than a year about doing something about rent controls and house building. Houses will not come through the Government's friends, the private developers. That will never happen. They are not interested and they are not able. They could be provided through NAMA, the State agency that over the past two years sucked in billions of euros of taxpayers' money, all of which proceeds go back to the banks and not into the public purse. NAMA should be turned into a vehicle for ending the homeless crisis. There are 120 families in Blanchardstown who are homeless and 120 houses currently being built in Diswellstown Manor by NAMA. Why should those houses be sold to wealthy people when poorer people need them? It is up to the Government to fund councils to build houses. It could also change NAMA's brief and give it the authority to become a factor in the housing crisis. Is the Taoiseach willing to do that? Is the Tánaiste, who is largely responsible for this crisis, willing to do it? It is for the Taoiseach to answer those questions. People on the ground will not wait much longer and will take further actions such as that outlined.

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