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

As we approach Christmas, 1,000 children are either living on our streets or in emergency accommodation. What is the priority? There are 739 apartments or houses available for sale in Dublin for less than €200,000 each, which could become permanent homes. Why would the Government choose to spend €190,000 per unit on modular houses, which are temporary homes in which it is proposed people will reside for only six months, when it could purchase 739 permanent homes in Dublin today, thereby removing those 1,000 children from the street, which is utterly unacceptable? Will the Minister of State respond to my question in regard to the opening up of the commercial books of NAMA. NAMA has failed us in terms of the delivery of social housing. We need to open up its books with a view to increasing the proposed 2,000 units return, which is a pathetic return from NAMA.

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