Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The plan is simply for the National Asset Management Agency to be supported in building housing to profit bailed-out developers. Given the way in which NAMA has operated, these properties could easily be snapped up by a major real estate investment trust, REIT, at a cheap price in order that the public can be screwed even more. In the past five years, we were told again and again that NAMA would deliver thousands of social housing units. The Taoiseach even claimed there would be 4,000 such units during the local elections. Thus far, only 2,000 units have been delivered, primarily through social leasing, rather than as social housing stock. NAMA cares as much about social housing as the Government does.

While I welcome the sentiments underpinning the Fianna Fáil Party motion, it is strange that the party which created the National Asset Management Agency with such weak reference to a social dividend is calling on NAMA to deliver 10,000 social housing units. No one is fooled by this posturing. Fianna Fáil created the property bubble which caused the housing crisis in the first instance. It also started the privatisation of social housing long before Fine Gael and the Labour Party had an opportunity to make matters even worse.

The Sinn Féin amendment includes a number of other points that are essential for tackling the current crisis. These include measures to address unaffordable rents. Last year, the Government failed miserably to do this when it introduced a pathetic delay in rent reviews. This delay resulted in most people renting properties having their rents increased by exorbitant amounts in November and early December.

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