David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State will have noticed a pattern emerging in this Chamber over recent months: Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have been contriving on one issue after another to block solutions and progress on many issues facing people outside this Chamber. When we deal with rising and high rents, it has consequences for families and individuals. It adds to the cost of living crisis. There are families deciding now whether to purchase groceries or pay the rent. They have to make these choices every day. This is driving more people into poverty and adding to the homelessness crisis. It is no surprise that today the Dublin Region Homeless Executive published a report that shows that homelessness has increased by 53% in the capital city since last winter.

The Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government accused Sinn Féin of playing games on this issue. How dare he accuse us of playing games. We have a responsibility and a job to do. Our job is to legislate, to bring forward solutions. This Bill is a solution. The people who are playing games are the ones who are blocking every solution put forward by the Opposition that will deal with this and many other issues. Every time we bring forward a solution we are told we have to wait, but people cannot afford to wait. They cannot wait any longer. I do not have faith in the ability of Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael to do the right thing on this issue. They can unite to block progress, but not to block tax cuts or a cut in the universal social charge for the wealthy, as we saw in the budget, or in respect of multinational companies and Apple’s tax. It is simply not good enough that we have to hold off on providing solutions.

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