Séamus Healy (Tipperary, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

The picture the Minister has painted is not the picture I or the vast majority of Deputies find in their clinics. We do not expect the Minister to solve the problem overnight but his party has been in government for eight years. What has happened since 2002 is that the public housing programme has been handed over to the private market, namely, builders, developers and landlords, and we now rely on the private market to be the main driver for the provision of public housing. It is clear to any reasonable person looking at the current situation that this policy has failed utterly.

That 4,000 of the 10,398 persons who are homeless are children does not indicate a successful policy. Targets set by the Minister and Government over a number of years have not been met and we now have a very serious problem. The only way to deal with it is to ensure that funds are made available. Local authorities can only build housing if they have funds and I am asking the Minister to make funds available so that they can build at least 10,000 houses per year.

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