Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The definition of insanity is continuing to do the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Over the past two years, the issue of the housing crisis has dominated these benches. The statistics say everything. In 2014, 880 children were homeless in the State while by 2017, that number had increased to 3,100. Obviously, something is dramatically wrong with the current policy.

Life in a hotel for that family and those children is unacceptable. I am talking about the long journeys to school, the mental stress on the children and the families, the emotional and behavioural problems that come with that, and not having a place to cook or where the children can play.

It is shameful that this has happened, and there is one reason for it. The Minister will not like to hear what I have to say and he probably will not accept it, but it comes down to an ideology. That is the reason we have a homelessness crisis. That ideology is allowing the free market to run amok; it is as simple as that. The banking crisis of 2008 did not come out of nowhere. It was a crisis that was manufactured by the ruling class in this country, of which the Minister's party is part. It comes down to class ideology as well. If people in hotels for the homeless were wealthy, there is no doubt that they would be housed.

Public and social housing has become a dirty word. It is not a dirty word. There have been huge successes when it comes to public housing. My family availed of public housing, like many other families, and it was a great success. Sometimes it goes wrong but in the vast majority of cases, it does not. Until this House understands that homelessness and children who are homeless is a by-product of ideology in terms of the Minister's party and Fianna Fáil in the previous Government, and until that is sorted out, we will continue in this situation and it will never end.

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