Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

-----but I note the fact that she did not distance herself one iota from the dog whistle politics that the Taoiseach demonstrated on the floor yesterday. I note her points on affordable homes but everyone should note the comments of the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government earlier when he repeated his claim that €320,000 falls within the remit of affordable housing as he sees it. I note the Minister for Employment and Social Affairs' points on the Land Development Agency and suffice to say that it will prepare the ground for the biggest privatisation of land in the history of the State. The Government's housing policies are divisive. They are dividing rich from poor and we heard the Taoiseach's rhetoric yesterday about families in hotels being split up and so on but ordinary people are beginning to unite. The single mother who has received notice to quit, the student who cannot afford the rent, the homeless couple, workers on an average wage and ordinary people with a social conscience are giving their support to social movements such as Take Back the City. It is not just in the Dáil that the Government has an alternative and an opposition now but it is on the streets as well and we will see it next Wednesday, 3 October at 12.30 p.m. outside the front of this House when I hope that thousands will converge to demand a major increase in the capital spend on social housing in the budget and I appeal to all, especially young people, to attend that.

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