Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We are facing another winter with a housing crisis. In spite of Fine Gael having had seven and a half years in government to deal with this issue, the housing crisis has escalated each year under its watch. It is the worst it has ever been but the Government cannot accept that Rebuilding Ireland has been a dismal failure. Its determined resistance due to its ideological block has forced thousands of people into homelessness. The Minister is opposed to the roll-out of a State-funded countrywide social and affordable house building programme because he is a right-wing Tory. It is as simple as that. His denial of a housing emergency is shameful. He daily defends the indefensible in spite of knowing the misery caused by this crisis. When he is defending the indefensible, does he ever think of those who are forced to sleep in doorways, cold, wet, miserable and frightened? Does he ever take a moment to think of those forced to sleep in alleyways or along river banks? Does he ever think about the people who are too scared to tell their landlord that their heating has broken in case they are evicted and become homeless? Does he ever spare a thought for the thousands of working families who cannot afford to buy a home because, as a result of Government policies, there are no affordable homes?

As the Minister is aware, the solution has been staring him in the face for years. We need a countrywide State-funded social and affordable house building programme. If the Minister refuses to act on that, it will come back to haunt him.

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