Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, has today re-announced, as he is fond of doing, that the Government is to deliver 1,000 new social housing units.

That would be a very welcome development if it were true. However, a recent report by Simon shows that 95% of rental properties cannot be afforded by citizens dependent on State rental supports. We have been listening to the same announcements from the Taoiseach, the Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, and others for years. The Government promised that a minimum of 1,000 new social houses would be built in 2015. While that would have been welcome, even though it is a paltry number, relatively speaking, given the gravity and depth of the housing crisis, the target is not going to be met. Instead, the latest figures provided by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government show that a mere 28 local authority houses were constructed in the first nine months of 2015. That is 28 homes when children are growing up in hotel rooms, more than 5,000 citizens are in homeless accommodation, including 600 children, and more than 100,000 applicants are on waiting lists for local authority housing, including 5,000 in my constituency. Let us be straight about this. It is the policy of the Government not to build social and affordable housing. The Government's record is clear. Social housing construction has declined by 1,600% since 2011, its first year in office. Nevertheless, it could find €64 billion to pump into banks. Why does the Taoiseach not explain as he leaves office why he did not spend even a fraction of these billions to construct the homes that are so badly needed by citizens?

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