Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

He was upset. Let us focus on the people that are really suffering not the pampered Ministers who have their feelings hurt because the Government has failed so badly. To be honest, to call it failure is probably kind, particularly in light of the malicious undermining of social housing his party engaged in along with the Labour Party when the previous Government was in office. The amendments introduced to Part V of the Planning and Development Act 2000 in the previous Dáil represented a shameful attack on housing in the interests of private developers, but that is hardly surprising since there are so many landlords in the House.

The State has failed to deliver on a basic right. The private market is unwilling to house those who are not on tech bubble wages. Many landlords have shown themselves to be only interested in eking out the maximum from places not much better than slums. The only solution is widespread mass construction of social housing by the State through local authorities which are in public ownership, affordable and sustainable.

Fine Gael has told us each year that there will be thousands of houses built the following year, despite only a few hundred are being built. Every year the rubbish that was spewed out the previous year is repackaged and resold. No one is fooled. The Government's inaction speaks far louder than the spin.

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