Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister, Deputy Noonan, in his somewhat monotone contribution earlier, seemed to be labouring under the misapprehension that the Fennelly report was merely a fig leaf, an excuse we had all waited for to table a motion of no confidence in the Taoiseach. Far from needing to conjure any pretext to table a motion of no confidence, the objective conditions on the ground and the experiences of families right across the State leave us in no doubt about the very many fronts on which we could have moved a motion of no confidence in the Taoiseach.

Today, at the top of the news, we were told that homelessness agencies have now declared the issue a humanitarian crisis. That is how severe and acute the chaos is within the areas of housing and homelessness in our society. The gentlemen and gentlewoman opposite have presided over that. Over the summer, and for some months before that, we still saw record numbers of people lying on hospital trolleys. That is the Government's chaos, record and form of governance. It has persisted, of course, with the madness that is Irish Water and domestic water charges. Those are only three examples, but I could go on.

I should say to the Minister of State, Deputy Harris, that we are more than happy to debate the figures. We will debate the figures with him any time. How about the number of families on the social housing waiting list? Would he like to discuss those? Would he like to discuss the number of households in mortgage arrears? Do the gentlemen opposite like those figures?

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