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

The availability and accessibility of a roof over a person's head should be a right, not a matter for the market. That is the point. People cannot exist and function in a meaningful way in our society if they do not have a roof over their heads, and that should be obvious.

A government that is incapable of providing a secure roof over the heads of its citizens is not worth the name "government". It should be ashamed of itself, particularly if, at the beginning of the 21st century, we are still trying to succeed in achieving the most elementary requirement for existence and functioning in society. The Government has failed spectacularly on this because it does not want to upset people who are profiting from homelessness and the housing crisis. That is what this is about.

The failure of the Government to tackle the crisis relating to homelessness and housing is due to the fact that it wanted to improve the balance sheets of the banks, the landlords, NAMA and developers and to put them back in business. Now, it does not even want to impose rent controls. This is utterly shameful. I do not expect the Government will do anything about this. While I support the Sinn Féin proposal, I believe we need to go further and introduce a differential rent scheme because, as a result of the dwindling number of council houses, rent is now related to people's ability to pay. We need an ample stock of council houses - the rents relating to which are controlled and linked to income - to be provided by the State. This should be standard, quality housing that reaches the proper standards. This housing does not exist currently and I have no real faith the Government is serious about delivering it.

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