Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have just a couple of minutes so I will focus on just one or two things. This is the big issue for all of us. Not a week goes by that a new homeless family does not come to my constituency office. The majority of the reasons that prompt people to come in are housing-related. Sometimes they are people trying to get transfers. I was dealing with a case in recent days involving a couple and seven children who live in a two-bed unit. Again, they are trying to transfer - to move up. I would argue that I live in one of the areas with probably one of the most progressive local authority housing agencies. However, our biggest failure - this is what people say to us when they come to our constituency offices - is our lack of ambition. There are probably 5,000 households on South Dublin County Council's list and it is proposed to build a couple of hundred houses. If one looks at the numbers on lists throughout the country, they are similar. We could talk of 90,000 in total but the figure is probably much higher. In that context, it is proposed to build 36,000 units over the next six years. We are failing our people. We are not ambitious enough. We are not meeting people's aspirations, needs, hopes or expectations

. Sinn Féin's proposals are ambitious. We believe they can work. However, we need to start being more ambitious in our outlook. That is what we are trying to do and that is why we are trying to focus on these four areas. I do not think we can leave this to the market or to private companies that have ruthlessly taken advantage of the situation and people's vulnerability and that will continue to do so. The lack of affordable and social housing is acutely affecting young people. We know that. Increasing numbers of people are coming into our offices. I was at the National Youth Council's offices recently and, again, young people came to me and talked about the impact homelessness is having on families. We are all talking about it, but I would argue that we are not ambitious enough and we need to start looking up rather than down at these figures. I think we can deliver. Collectively, I think there is the goodwill in the House to do so. However, we need a plan that works, and I would argue that we need to approach the issue differently.

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