Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

We are interested in ending the housing crisis and beginning the provision of tens of thousands of social houses, which is the only way of addressing the issue. Driving it into the private market, with private landlords and developers, will ruin any possibility of ending the problem.

More than 90 Deputies were elected who would act on water charges, and those to my left have very clearly stolen the clothes of the left in saying they would do something about water charges. Nothing has been done. Can we at least get our act together to do something about the issues we have in common? People from many parties stood outside the Taoiseach's office today to demand repeal of the eighth amendment. Let us get our act together and do something about that.

From Deputy O'Callaghan's final comment, I detect that we will have white smoke soon, with some arrangement to put a Government in place. It is outrageous that we are taking another week off and getting no business done in the House. This side of the House is working closely with the Right2Change and the Right2Water Deputies to put together a joint motion on water charges. We will work with others interested in doing this and I am calling on the public to get outside the gates and support us. I am calling on the public who voted for us and the real people fighting back to try to change their lives in this country. We are concerned about them. There are competing interests in this country and they are the interests of the rich versus the rest of us. We represent "the rest of us".

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