Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan.

Often one hears people talking about victimless crimes. When this Government talks about the crisis of homelessness, it does so as if it were a "criminalless" crime. The impression is given that while the massive crime of homelessness exists, nobody really knows who is responsible. We know who are the victims of the housing crisis. They include the 1,500 children and thousands of adults in emergency accommodation, the tens of thousands of people who are now on the precipice of homelessness and whom we all meet through our work, the 100,000 families on the social housing waiting list and the people trapped because of rents or mortgages they cannot afford to pay. However, we also know who are the criminals. The Government's crocodile tears on all this do not wash. The Government has made political choices that have resulted in the tsunami of homelessness affecting the country at present. The leading homelessness charities acknowledged that the primary cause is the cut to the rent allowance. At the time of the cut, the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, said there would be no case of homelessness due to the changes. That did not prove to be the case. We should examine the choices the Government continues to make in terms of not using the NAMA properties. One in eight hotels in this State is owned by NAMA and could easily be refurbished and used as decent emergency accommodation. Most crucially, the Government is tied to the idea that it is necessary to incentivise the private sector to build homes. This is achieved at double what it would cost the State to invest directly, as we heard last night.

There are different political choices that can be made. These involve breaking with the logic that ordains that the market rules and that only the market can provide housing. The State should become involved immediately by refurbishing the NAMA hotels and using them to provide decent emergency accommodation. Rent controls linked to average incomes should be introduced immediately and there should be a reversal of the rent allowance cuts until those controls are put in place. There should be a writing down of mortgages to affordable levels. Most importantly, we need investment to clear the housing list by 2018. Some €10 billion, if invested directly by the State and representing the cheapest approach by far, could build 100,000 homes, create tens of thousands of jobs, wipe out our housing problem and transform the economy in the process. The Government will have to be forced into doing this. It will not volunteer to do so and will not do so out of the goodness of its heart.

There are lessons to be learned from the movement against water charges. I refer to the combination of mass protest and civil disobedience to force action. Homeless people and those on the precipice of homelessness are not just victims, they can be actors for justice and for the building of homes. I salute those who occupied the NAMA houses in west Dublin last week. They were an inspiration to all of us, including homeless people and those threatened with homelessness. I refer to the demand that people not leave their homes, refuse to give up their homes unless they have somewhere else to go, and occupy NAMA buildings, including NAMA hotels and houses, with a view to showing that the required resources exist. This movement should be tied to mass protests forcing and demanding immediate action on the part of the Government for what is now the number-one political issue. Immediate change should be demanded.

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