Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Sure. Will the new strategy statement acknowledge the disastrous failure of the housing strategy pursued during the past six years? That is not a rhetorical use of the word "disastrous". It is a self-evident fact that the strategy that has been pursued has failed to an extraordinary level. It has resulted in almost 3,000 people being homeless and 7,000 people in total, an enormous number, rotting on housing lists for close to two decades, in some cases, and there is no sign of any of this improving. It would be refreshing for anybody in politics and certainly for a Government to acknowledge a mistake, to say we got it wrong and that we need to radically shift focus and strategy in this area and, in particular, to recognise that the plan to lure in real estate investment trusts, vulture funds, property speculators and developers, through various incentives and tax breaks, has been an utter failure. I do not think we will ever grasp the extent to which it has been a failure in terms of the taxes forgone, but there can be little doubt of the enormous amount of money that has been made by those people. If we consider the results in terms of housing delivery, there was a 0.4% increase in the quantum of housing during those years and the situation has been disastrous in terms of housing and the homelessness. Will there be a recognition of that in the strategy statement and a consideration of a radical shift in strategy towards public provision of housing?

See this speech in context