Pat Casey (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

-----provides certainty for tenants and increases the whole-of-Government response that is needed to get on top of our housing and homelessness crisis. We could use those 40 days to work on housing solutions and get the entire apparatus of Government to realise that Rebuilding Ireland is not working.

There are 40 days to increase the State's role in the provision of homes for all who need them; 40 days in which an entire suite of measures, on which many of us involved in housing have been working since 2016, could be brought into reality and 40 days to show the people who elected us to this House that politics can be a positive force for change, that politicians can disagree but can also take their responsibilities seriously, as well as to provide the parameters to allow the people to decide what policies need to be introduced that will ensure every man, woman and child in Ireland gets a home.

There will be time for appropriate judgment about the failures of this Government. That time will be in an orderly general election in the spring, when the vast majority of people actually want an election and are prepared to engage. The need for radical solutions in housing will demand the attention of the vast majority of the electorate. That time is not in the run-up to Christmas. Let us end this farcical debate tonight and get back to work.

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