Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The Minister said we were not protestors but lawmakers. However, there are many ways to protest. Shakespeare famously said in the play "Hamlet", "The lady doth protest too much, methinks." She was not outside the castle with a placard, rather she was talking too much because she knew that she was guilty and her only way of covering up her guilt was by trying to talk her way out of it, which is what I see the Government doing constantly on the issue of housing.

I congratulate the National Housing and Homeless Coalition that pulled together today's demonstration and organised us to debate this motion. It will not be the last we will see of that protest. There will be many more to come.

When the Minister says he is a lawmaker, not a protestor, he must ask himself if the laws are working. Unless he is going to lie to us, he must clearly admit that the housing laws are not working because the evidence shows that the problem is increasing on a daily basis. It is not just about those who are homeless and living in homeless accommodation. How many of us are dealing with families with three and four children who are living on top of their parents for up to 16 years and cannot get access to a house? We know, as does the Minister, that there is a tiny cabal of very wealthy organisations and individuals who are profiting from the misery overcrowding and homelessness present in this country.

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We must challenge that sort of profiteering. Protesting is one way to challenge it.

The conflict of interest for Members who are landlords may be a sore point for some, as acknowledged by Deputies Bailey and Michael Healy-Rae. Unless such Members vote in favour of the motion, that conflict of interest becomes clear because the motion challenges their right to the housing market and to be subsidised by the State to the outrageous total of €7 billion in the past 14 years. The motion will help to challenge such practices. In voting against the motion, members who are landlords and will compromise themselves and the notion of democracy.

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