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

It is not acceptable for the Minister to say to families, such as Máire's, that their predicament is not acceptable when the Government has a hand in creating their misery. That is the truth. The coalition has been in government for almost five years and its record on social housing build is pathetic. I am shocked that the Minister and his colleagues repeatedly give out that message as though they had revolutionised social housing provision - far from it.

What it has allowed is a situation where families, including children, sleep in bed and breakfasts, hostels and hotels, if they are lucky. What it has allowed is a situation where children try to make it to school every day for weeks on end from those hotels, if they are lucky. What it has allowed is a situation where people sleep on sofas or in their mothers' box rooms for months or years. What it has allowed is fear in a whole generation not alone that they will not own their own home but that they will be priced out of the rented accommodation on which they rely, the place they call home.

I ask the Minister to clarify this because I am curious to know. Last night the Government Members voted down Sinn Féin legislation on the issue of rent certainty and the prevention of homelessness. Revealingly enough, most of the Minister's colleagues did not consider it worth their while to show up for the debate. How does the Minister answer Máire who needs rent certainty and all those tenants - the figures do not lie - 50% of whom are in Dublin and more than 30% are across the State who currently fear they will be priced out of their homes? When will they get rent certainty or has the Government given up the ghost on that? This is on its watch and it is its responsibility. The Minister should not talk to others about leadership when he so clearly fails in that regard.

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