Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Not a single local authority house has been built in Galway since 2009. I appreciate that some houses have been purchased or made available under the voluntary housing scheme, but not one local authority house has been built in Galway in recent years. I ask those who are wondering why there is a housing crisis to bear that in mind. I accept that there is a role for the market, but I suggest that the local authorities and the Government have an even bigger role in providing homes for our citizens. We cannot have healthy people without homes and without security of tenure. If we continue to ask families to move from one form of accommodation to another on a yearly or two-yearly basis, and therefore require children to move from one school to another at the same time, it is absolute nonsense to talk about having a healthy society.

See this speech in context