Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I heard your thing and I read it. It could be used in a different part of this building. Focus Ireland also said the current situation would be much worse without its work as it helped more than 400 families, in partnership with the State, to secure a home last year. It did not do it on its own. I salute it, Fr. Peter McVerry and all of the other groups. Those 400 families were helped to move on from homelessness. The charity stressed that much good work is being done but the crisis will continue without a substantial increase in social housing provision and a move away from a reliance on providing more emergency accommodation and hubs. That is what we have to do. We built them in the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1970s and 1980s. When we had no cranes or equipment we built houses by the hundred.

The greatest con is being perpetrated on the people as the Government moves figures around and moves announcements. The Government thinks it is conning the people but it is not. It might be codding some people in this Chamber but it is not codding the people outside this Chamber. They are fanacht libh. They are waiting for the Government to come to the door. I am sure they are getting it in the by-election campaigns already. As I have said, we must move away from the reliance on emergency accommodation. It is huge money.

Focus Ireland has called for a number of key actions to be taken by the Government to help ease the crisis, but will it take them? It has called for the introduction of a specific substrategy to address the needs of homeless families, given the scale of the crisis. It has also called for the setting of time limits, whereby no family or person will be homeless for longer than six months. This will require new measures to prevent men, women and children losing their homes and improved measures to help those who are already homeless. Of course, the Government will not bring in these measures because it would mean upsetting its friends in the banks. It will not stop the banks. Fine Gael had its former MEP out the other morning with mealy-mouthed words. He could not condemn the CEO of KBC Bank when he wanted to close the page on tracker mortgages. That is the arrogance. Fine Gael sent in its former MEP to be the spoofer for the banks. He is getting a fine remuneration. He could not even condemn the words. He said they were unfortunate. That is the thinking Fine Gael has. That is the respect it has for the people who are homeless.

Focus Ireland has also called for a commitment to building more social housing in sustainable communities, but the Government will not do this. It tells us it is building houses in Tipperary, but we cannot find them. Focus Ireland also called on the Government to ensure that local authorities publish guidelines for their staff setting out what a child first approach to homeless families would involve. I salute Tipperary County Council front-line staff who are at the coalface every day of the week in Clonmel, Nenagh and elsewhere. Focus Ireland also called on the Government to ensure a stream of social housing is made available for vulnerable people leaving care who would otherwise face homelessness.

We need to have respect. The Government should cut out all of the codswallop and spin and make meaningful efforts. We speak about fast-tracking and various schemes introduced by the Government. They are all Ponzi schemes and the Government knows it. They are not accessible. For example, the home purchase loan schemes in Tipperary are just not working. The system is broken and the Government is unable to fix it. It cannot even face the people. The Minister of State is here on his own with not another Fine Gael or Independent Alliance member. The Minister of State should hang his head in shame and send a message to his boss, the Minister, that he is hiding. He cannot hide from the people with their pinn luaidhe when they go to vote. The Government will have no place to hide when the people write uimhir 1, uimhir 10 or uimhir 0 on the paper. The Government cannot hide from the people because the people have found it out. Its contempt for the people is just staggering.

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