Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

It is like Groundhog Day every time we discuss housing. I welcome the motion from the Independents 4 Change. We support the motion. It is a good motion but every single time we talk about housing it is exactly the same. The Government says it appreciates that things are bad, but that they are getting better.

We have been dealing with that response from this Government and the previous Government for years. The situation is getting worse and the spin from the Government is increasing because it has to try to bridge the gap between the propaganda and the reality as the reality continues to worsen and the propaganda has to pretend it is improving.

Oliver Callan has a tweet which encapsulates the issue very well. He shows an article from the end of 2017 in which the Taoiseach pledges 7,000 social homes in 2018 and an article from a couple of days ago in which the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government says that the number of new social homes are on target, with 4,000 social homes being delivered. That is a broad, expansive definition of social housing, illustrating that gulf between the reality and the propaganda of the Government.

The only way out of this Groundhog Day is a mass movement. We can, and should, continue to table motions and legislation before the House but that will not change the mind of the Government. It will not fundamentally change the mind of Fianna Fáil either because one in four of its Members is a landlord - the number is even higher in the Cabinet - and the interests they represent, not in terms of personal interests but class interests, are the landlord class, the developer class and the banker class who have an interest in the housing crisis continuing. A mass movement on housing is essential. It is the only way to force any change whatsoever.

That is why the upcoming regional demonstrations and the demonstration in Dublin organised by the National Homeless and Housing Coalition at 2 p.m. on Saturday, 9 March, with three meeting points - the Housing Agency on Mount Street, the GPO and City Hall - is important with the demand for public and affordable housing for all and an end to evictions and homelessness. That movement is developing; it is coming. The energy we saw on the streets in support of the nurses and midwives, and paramedics last Saturday will also feed into it and be seen on those demonstrations.

I refer to a case that I have raised here previously, which is an extreme illustration of the scale of the housing crisis. Constituents of mine in Tallaght Cross are in properties owned by Túath Housing, which is traditional housing for those coming out of homelessness. People who have been living in hotels or homeless hubs are put into transitional housing with 18-month leases. At the end of those leases, they get notices to quit, are pursued through the RTB and threatened with eviction back into homelessness. Effectively, they are still in homelessness and they are threatened with going back into homelessness. We raised this before Christmas with the Minister and he said that nobody would be made homeless. Nobody has been made homeless but the threatening letters continue and people are still faced with the prospect of being taken to the RTB. I had a meeting with them last week and they are understandably concerned. The letters and the threats of evictions of people who are effectively in homelessness back into worse homelessness need to stop.

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