Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

In my area of Fingal alone, there are more than 17,000 ha of residential land available that could potentially build just short of 50,000 residential units. The Minister's Government has the absolute neck to criticise the work of local authorities and to try to spread a lie that the market will deliver, that they just need time. Fine Gael has had time. It had seven years, along with its friends in the Labour Party who pursued the same policies when they were in government, and it has not delivered because it has failed to address public housing and should not rely on the market to build.

Every one of us in this House knows the devastation that is impacting on families who on a daily basis come to us, and we have to say there is nothing we can do for them. They are being told that everywhere they go. The first-time buyer's age has risen to 34. Rents have gone up by more than 80%. We have the highest rents in Europe, they are twice the cost of rent of Berlin. The Government talks about attracting people into jobs in this State.

The days of the rack-renting, slump-owning landlords are well back. Tenements are back in this town, and they are defining a generation. The solution years ago was to clear them out, to get rid of the private rack-renting slump-owning landlord and build public housing. That, too, is the message of today. That is what people were asking for today. It is not about social housing for people who do not have money. Everybody needs to live in a decent house with a roof over their head that does not soak up 50% to 60% of their income.

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