Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing my time with Deputies Shortall and Healy.

When people are being made homeless faster than the Government can get them out of homelessness, something is not working. When more than 50 households enter into rental distress every day and need to avail of the housing assistant payment, HAP, something is not working. When Fine Gael has been in government for more than seven years and the housing crisis has only grown worse and worse, something is not working. The Government's solutions to the crisis are not working. That is why many political parties, as well as trade unions, students, community activists and housing and homelessness organisations were united at the Raise the Roof demonstration outside Leinster House today to demand the real action that is needed on housing and the homeless crisis.

In July of this year, there were 9,891 people who were homeless and in emergency accommodation, almost 4,000 of whom were children. The number of homeless families has increased by 18% since the summer of 2017. Rent in Dublin is at an all-time high and many renters are living in insecure tenancies. House prices are entirely unaffordable for most people. In Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown the median house price is more than €500,000. This is unaffordable for young and older people in my constituency. Frankly, it is unaffordable for most people in my constituency, full stop.

Why does the Government continue to accuse all Members of the Opposition of not putting forward solutions when clearly we all have done so? The Green Party in the Dáil and Seanad has put forward proposals for measures to invest in large-scale cost-rental public housing; create an independent building regulator; increase and strengthen the vacant and derelict sites levy; and to expand the security of tenure for renters. Sinn Féin has put forward solutions, as has Solidarity-People Before Profit. The Labour Party, the Social Democrats, Fianna Fáil, Independents 4 Change and many other Independents have come forward with solutions but the Government does not listen.

The Government needs to make a truly substantial investment in cost-rental public housing, as proposed and supported by all parties that have tabled this motion. Let us build public housing to scale, open to people of all incomes and social backgrounds, creating sustainable, diverse communities, as in Vienna and many other European cities. In my constituency of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown there are several sites that would be perfect locations for the cost-rental model.

I and community organisations such as Dundrum Housing Action have called on the Government to ensure that State lands are used for public housing, including all of the Central Mental Hospital land in Dundrum, the sites between the Central Bank buildings in Sandyford, the NAMA site in Sandyford industrial estate and the site beside Leopardstown racecourse, to create a diverse community of people of all incomes in affordable State rental homes. Dundrum, Dublin and Ireland need this model.

I plead with the Minister to listen to the experts, those who work every day on housing and homelessness and the people of Ireland who gathered outside Leinster House today. The Government must build public housing on public land and build stronger and more secure communities.

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