Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is difficult to digest those figures, but I note the significant increase over a number of years. I mentioned the students because that is the latest symptom of an out of control market. The Minister of State has as much information as I have; the students are protesting because they are being subjected to an increase of €1,000. Can the Minister of State imagine that?

Homelessness is the most acute problem in Galway. The Minister of State is fully aware that not one social house has been built in Galway since 2009. It is clear from the figures from the Department that none was built last year. Galway distinguishes itself by being bottom of the league. It acquired seven houses; the lowest number in the country.

Is this just a complete inability to deal with a problem or is it a refusal to accept that the market will not provide?

I am asking the Minister of State about this matter again. I know it is difficult to hear these figures. In the context of emergency accommodation and the significant increase, I can tell the Minister of State that people are now in a situation whereby they are getting respite in apartments for a week or two in order that they can feed their newborn babies. They then have to go back to single rooms in hotels. That is the level to which the emergency service has been reduced to. The Minister of State indicated that the Department spent €3.7 million in 2017. Does it not occur to him that he needs to go down to Galway on a regular basis, haul the local authorities over the coals and ask what land they have, why they are not using it and why they are not building?

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