Séamus Healy (Tipperary, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

It embraced privatisation and now we have what we knew we would have, namely, a disastrous housing situation leaving 10,000 people homeless. Deputy Kelly as Minister told us he could not do anything about rent certainty because of the Constitution. Deputy Jan O'Sullivan introduced the outrageous HAP scheme, a bonanza for landlords and desperate for families that have not got two ha'pennies to rub together at the end of the week.

We need to abandon the market-based approach. We need to commence large-scale local authority house building programmes of at least 10,000 houses a year, like Labour Party Ministers did in the past. We need to bury the so-called constitutional issue. The way to do that is for the Oireachtas to declare a housing emergency. That would allow us not just to control rents but to decrease them and ensure rent certainty and security of tenure.

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