Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State should not tell me that is what is being done. Fine Gael has been in government since 2011. I remember begging it not to sell Project Arrow to Cerberus at a par value of over €6 billion. NAMA was allowed to sell it for €800 million although it had a par value of over €6 billion. It was all residential property in Ireland. I begged Fine Gael and the Labour Party not to sell the portfolio to Cerberus, which is obviously making mad money on it now. Where is the logic in that? It is gone.

Why do we not use the State land? The Minister of State is saying we are not depending on the private sector. When somebody who is selling a place, refurbishing it or changing its use to facilitate a family member creates a homeless family in the process, there is something amiss. It means the Government is depending on the private sector. Despite our having debated this for years in here, we are still facing an outrageous homelessness crisis. Fair play to Deputy Broughan for tabling the motion even though we are sick to the back teeth of discussing the issue. It has not gone away, however, and we have to keep talking about it until it does.

See this speech in context