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

Is the Taoiseach putting a priority on filling these vacancies in NESC? What role will the council play and is the Taoiseach putting the need to deal with the housing and homelessness crisis as a central urgent priority? There may be issues competing for the title of the most pressing economic and social issue but I believe it is the housing crisis.

Yesterday, a bus driver, who would be on the average industrial wage, came to my office because he and his family are now facing homelessness due to rent increases. He cannot find housing anywhere. If people on average industrial earnings are facing homelessness because there are no council houses, rents are out of control and their earnings will not allow them to get a mortgage, one can hardly state that the Government's housing policy is working.

Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council, which People Before Profit certainly does not control, passed a motion stating Rebuilding Ireland had failed. Wexford County Council passed a similar motion. The evidence is there for all to see. The fact that the Peter McVerry Trust, Focus Ireland, Simon and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions took to the streets as part of a national demonstration recently is also evidence there is simply no faith that the Government's housing and homelessness policy is delivering. How much of a priority will this be for the Taoiseach and the role he will assign to NESC?

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