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

The sum total is that the Taoiseach has no answer for families who will seek emergency accommodation tonight and will be sent away. Some of them will sleep in cars. Some of them have slept in parks. The Government has acknowledged that we have what amounts to a humanitarian crisis at this stage. There are 130,000 households on the housing waiting list. The Taoiseach cannot claim with a straight face, or with any level of honesty, that any real progress has been made in terms of social housing provision. The Taoiseach, I and all of the families on the waiting list know that.

It is curious to hear the Taoiseach say that it is not a matter of funding and that money is not the issue. The facts do not bear that out. It appears that the Taoiseach lays the blame for this crisis at the feet of almost everybody. The Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, blames the local authorities, the Tánaiste has blamed the planning process and, at times, it almost appears as if homeless people and families are being blamed. The Government's record is that it cut the social housing budgets in its first years in office. It has not released the funding for local authorities to build the homes so desperately needed, despite the fact that there are shovel ready projects good to go since 2013. The fact is that the Government fails to fund appropriate and sufficient emergency accommodation. That is the Government's record.

See this speech in context