Pat Casey (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputies Scanlon, Aindrias Moynihan, Murphy O'Mahony, MacSharry, O'Loughlin and Troy.

Fianna Fáil welcomes and supports the motion. Fine Gael has overseen a crisis marked by homelessness which is reaching unprecedented levels. Surging rents are at historic heights. Home building numbers are tens of thousands behind where they need to be, while some 130,000 people are in need of a permanent social home. All the while, another massive problem is emerging that the Government is completely ignoring; ordinary working families cannot afford to own or rent a place.

Fianna Fáil voted through some significant measures in budget 2019, but the key is delivery. The Government has to start to deliver on housing. After six separate plans and over a dozen launches, it just needs to put bricks and mortar into the ground. While other parties grandstand on motions and Bills that will not help to build a single additional home, we have worked to deliver changes in budget 2019 and will continue to hold the Government to account. There is no silver bullet solution to the housing crisis. Fianna Fáil supports the Labour Party motion as we will work on constructive solutions proposed by all parties. The Labour Party motion reflects that party's thoughtful and considered approach to housing solutions, which is in contrast with the showboating and anger management of others who just provide headlines, not homes.

The motion calls for the establishment of a housing development bank, increasing the percentage in Part V to 20%, credit union investment in the provision of social housing and protection for tenants and small landlords.

Fianna Fáil has worked on many of these proposals and is willing to continue to help progress them. The Labour Party's motion echoes closely Fianna Fáil's policy position. It reflects the fact that the State and the Government has a responsibility to the common good to ensure that all people have homes. The State must become the key actor in housing delivery in the Republic of Ireland.

The recent ESRI report, setting out the high amount of money being spent on rent alone, was not a surprise to anyone active in the rental sector in recent years. The increase in the number of homeless people to more than 10,000 is a fundamental failure of policy. This failure of policy is becoming increasingly clear. Fine Gael is very reluctant to change the State's role in housing policy. It is clear that it believes that the private market will sort out things eventually, but this will not be the case. Our housing crisis is getting worse, and after eight and a half years of Fine Gael in government, this is simply not good enough. Rent levels are very high, a whole generation cannot save enough to own a home, while vulnerable households are put at risk of homelessness. Home ownership is slipping away from an entire generation as house prices rise by 13% per annum while wages rise by only 2.5%. The 68% home ownership rate is the lowest since 1971. In Wicklow, house prices in the majority of the county are out of reach for thousands of hard-working families. Only last week a constituent wrote of her despair that even the rental sector in Wicklow was out of reach for her. I will quote an extract from Fiona's email to me.

My husband and I were married in August and found a beautiful rental apartment to call home. For eight months we have been completely happy. I work in Bray and my husband in Carlow, so Rathdrum is the perfect halfway point. Most unfortunately the place we live in has been sold and we have six weeks to vacate. We are rather urgently seeking somewhere to live. Our price range is only between €800 and €900, which is low at the current market rate of inflation, but we are still trying every possible avenue. We have asked around locally and we have been in touch with every estate agent and auctioneer in the Wicklow area. We are growing desperate with every passing day. We have trouble sleeping [and] eating, and I have become prone to panic attacks since we received the news. We just don't have the income to afford the staggering rents being charged.

This woman and her partner both work and commute, yet they have to move into separate parental homes because this Government cannot get on top of the housing crisis.

Fianna Fáil has shown its commitment to finding meaningful solutions through out role in the confidence and supply agreement, and has not shirked away from leading criticism of the Government where it is at fault. The people demand that the Government listens and acts rather than spinning and controlling news cycles. Delivery of new homes is not happening and the crisis is getting worse. I have stated time and time again that the Members in this House will work proactively and energetically to deliver solutions and will step up to the task at hand. However, the scale of the delivery and the response to our genuine support has been very poor. When working families are moving into parents' houses because they cannot even afford to rent a home in Rathdrum, the centre of Wicklow, it is clear that the Minister's policies are failing badly.

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