Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not need to remind anyone that the allegations in question were subsequently proven to be without foundation. Deputy Shortall advised me at that time that the country could not afford to have a general election and that a Christmas election would do huge damage to the country. I have not forgotten her wisdom or her certainty about what was needed for the country at that time. It is a pity that she has forgotten her own words and wise counsel at that time. She forget them as soon as it was expedient to do so. The housing crisis is very real. It affects our citizens in many ways. High rents are unaffordable for many people. The struggle to secure a mortgage, which involves raising a deposit, is followed by the struggle of finding somewhere to buy. The sharpest end of homelessness is seen in the level of rough sleeping on our streets and the presence of families in emergency accommodation. It has become popular in some quarters to attribute all this to the policies or ideology of one party - my party. That is not accurate and does not stand up to scrutiny. The housing crisis in Ireland was a long time in the making. I will go back to that in a moment. My party has been in charge of the housing brief for three and a half years under the Tánaiste, Deputy Coveney, and the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy. For the five years prior to that, the brief was held at Cabinet level by Deputies Kelly, Jan O'Sullivan and Penrose of the Labour Party. For the four years before that, it was held by John Gormley of the Green Party.

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