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

As fascinating as electoral speculation is, most people in the country are concerned with the capacity of Members to deliver on the issues that matter to them. I have a word of advice for all who are speculating. While I would be happy enough to have an election, nobody will be thanked for bringing about an election prompted by considerations of political advantage rather than clear-cut issues and policy-based platforms.

One of the key issues people want to see resolved, which the Government promised it would resolve and on which it would be tested, is housing. Mel Reynolds, the housing analyst and architect, said today that essentially the figures for the delivery of public housing are being massaged. He said the actual number of direct builds is half of what was claimed, which was already an abysmally low figure. The Taoiseach needs to respond to that. The official housing waiting list is 86,000 but when those on schemes such as the housing assistance payment, HAP, and the rental accommodation scheme, RAS, which are not secure forms of housing, are added to the figure, the number increases to 144,000.

I could not get there today but 12 rapid build houses that took two and a half years to be built in Dún Laoghaire on a site called George's Place, were opened today. The families who move into them will be very happy but what is frustrating is that People Before Profit started a campaign prior to the previous development plan for the site to be fully developed for social and affordable housing. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil voted consistently against its development as a public site because the council wanted to sell off part of it. Even now, only a fraction of the site is being used for the development of public housing because I think the council still wants to sell off parts of it rather than build public housing.

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