Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The question is very clear. I asked the Minister of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the number of social housing units that will be completed in 2017 and in each of the five years thereafter. I then go on to ask for further information. At this point, we are looking at 14 houses this year, with a bit of luck, in a city which has 15,000 people on a waiting list. The only game in town in Galway is the housing assistance payment, HAP, which is putting money into the hands of the landlords. This is notwithstanding the fact that Galway has been designated a rent pressure zone and that those payments are therefore limited. One cannot rent a house in Galway for love nor money. We have the most serious homeless crisis. The figures from the Department are directly at odds with what the city council are reporting. There were 185 homeless individuals in March, and the figure from the council is 21 families.

The Department does not have a clear idea of how many are homeless or what land is zoned as residential. It cannot possibly plan for a crisis if it does not have the right figures.

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