Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There the Tánaiste goes again, saying our housing policy is working. If he says it over and over again, maybe he will even start to believe it himself. It is simply not working. Thousands of people came to the streets of Dublin yesterday to make it clear to the Government that it is not working. The Government is failing people, including students, those in emergency accommodation and the 80,000 more people who are now living with their parents than there were last year. The Government is failing people who want to get on to the property market because that is the outworking of the Government's policies. Rents are out of control, at nearly 40% above peak prices. Houses are out of the reach of ordinary young couples. There is a crisis of unprecedented proportions, with 10,000 people in emergency accommodation. They do not want the Tánaiste's understanding. They want action, with an increased level of capital investment.

The Government needs to double the amount of money being put into social and affordable housing. The Government will not deliver 8,000 social houses in 2018. It will be 5,500 social houses, and that is nowhere near what is needed to deal with the crisis. If the Tánaiste says money is not a problem, then he should put his money where his mouth is. There are three proposals for cost rental projects which can deliver 2,500 social and affordable homes in three different sites in Dublin. The Department and the Government have not given sanction to it. The Government can take to its feet and start to turn the tide by saying that it will directly fund those projects and begin to deliver large-scale social housing, which is needed to deal with the crisis that the Government has brought about as a result of its underfunding and its policies that have failed those in the rental and housing sector.

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