Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As Deputy Funchion has pointed out, housing is one of the foremost issues that we deal with in our constituency offices. Day in and day out, Marian in my office is heartbroken with people who are facing homelessness. They have absolutely no faith in this Government to deliver for them. That is not based on anything other than an assessment of all of the available facts. There are children growing up in hotel rooms and we do not know what impact that is going to have on them. In case the Minister missed it, when An Taoiseach advised that perhaps people could get the money for a deposit off their parents, that made people extremely angry. Those people to whom the Government Deputies often refer, the men and women who get up early in the morning, cannot afford to buy houses in Fine Gael's republic of opportunity. They are facing homelessness. I spoke to a young nurse a couple of weeks ago, a woman who studied hard and has a qualification and whom we should be begging to stay in the State. She tells me she is closer to homelessness than she is to owning her own home.

The Minister advised that he would not be taking his foot off the pedal. There are people out there who feel like he has his foot on their neck. They really do. They are put to the pin of their collar. Maybe those who sit on the Government benches have never experienced the mental distress caused by not having a secure place to live and do not understand how damaging it must be for someone to know that no matter how hard they work or how early they get up in the morning, no matter how hard they struggle, they are never going to be able to afford a house. The median price of houses in my constituency is €301,000. That is in no way affordable for any couple on average, normal wages. I do not know, even if their parents had the means to give them a deposit, if that would actually help.

A significant number of people are being forced into debt just to keep a roof over their heads. A republic of opportunity - I really do not think so.

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