Pat Casey (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There are aspects of our worsening housing crisis and the political management of this crisis that need to be called out in this debate. I sincerely ask those whose job it is to report on this debate, and indeed whose responsibility is to bring to public attention the truth about the housing crisis, to reflect on what is said here. The statistics on housing and homelessness are grim and they are stated so many times that, sometimes, I think that people are fatigued about the numbers. Behind every statistic is a homeless person, a family in a hotel room, or a trauma that will cause scars that will take years to heal.

We need to call out the deeply cynical and negative politics around our housing crisis. By that I mean the political drama of this confidence motion which exists for one purpose only, namely, to exploit the real hurt to families caused by the lack of housing for the benefit of political parties who want to gain votes by feeding the politics of anger, despair, and continual crisis.

We only have to look at the ongoing destruction of democratic politics in the United Kingdom and the United States to see how the politics of crisis and fear are frustrating what is the purpose of mature representative politics. The speeches and the drama in this debate are all about who gets the political blame and who garners votes from an angry electorate. The politics of housing that are on display in this debate are an example of what is wrong with politics and only contribute to increasing disillusionment with politicians and the political system. That is not to say that the political system is working - far from it - but this debate will not build a single home, provide a single policy idea, nor offer hope to people who deserve it. This debate is a failed tactic, a cynical ploy and represents everything I despise about politics.

I sit on the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government on which members work together painstakingly through all the different aspects of the housing issue, from the chronic lack of social and affordable homes to the dysfunctional rental sector to problems with planning and construction delays caused by bureaucratic systems that are out of control. In the two years I have sat on the committee I have been impressed by colleagues of all parties and none in their commitment to working through these issues. The purpose of mature democratic politics is to provide solutions to our problems. These solutions will involve trial and error, inevitably they will involve compromise on deeply held principles, and often they will involve radical abandonment of sacred cows.

Our housing crisis is solvable. I agree that it will not be fixed overnight, but I disagree strongly that this Government is getting to grips with it. Personalised confidence motions and Trump-style outrage with slick tweets designed to feed the news cycles where the most colourful language is guaranteed coverage are not solving our systemic problems in housing. The adults in the room in this debate need to call out this travesty. It is the upcoming budget that will reveal if this Government is capable of meeting the dramatic policy shift that is needed on housing. Whatever occurs over the next few months, the reality of the lack of housing and homelessness for thousands of families and our fellow citizens will grind on. The people elected everyone to this House to be the adults in the room. The people expect us to hammer out solutions. They demand that politics works for the people, not for the cynical manipulation of voter sentiment. The keyboard warriors who hammer out hate towards so many of us will never build the policies that will solve our political problems. It is time for all of us who care about our society to call out the politics of witch hunts, blame games and eternal crisis.

Our State with all its power and resources can provide housing for all our people. There are many worthy ideas from all sides of this House that merit debate and implementation. Policy solutions are why I am here. Let us get back to the people's work.

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