Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

-----I welcome this motion. It is not populist. It is not designed to bring down the Government and force a Christmas election. It is to focus collective minds and efforts on the issue of housing. One would never think to listen to our esteemed colleague from Fianna Fáil that he will sit on his hands later and allow the chancers and hoodwinkers from Fine Gael, his partners in government, to have their way again with housing policy.

When I say "the Government" I should be absolutely clear and say that I mean not just Fine Gael but Fianna Fáil also. The instinct of the Government has been to circle the wagons when it comes to housing, to learn speaking notes, engage in spin and, essentially, to send a message to the people that they do not matter. Those of us who offer solutions that will make a real and substantial difference to people's lives and put a roof over people's heads are routinely ignored, abused or disregarded.

This is because for this Government and the political establishment more generally, power trumps people every single time. In its greed for political power, Fine Gael is blind to the very real consequences of its policy failures. For its part, Fianna Fáil engages in shadow-boxing and makes much noise, as we have just heard. When push comes to shove, however, its Members will come in here, sit on their hands and support their buddies in Fine Gael. They back the Government to the hilt and in reality, they are part of that Government. With his abstention here today, Deputy Micheál Martin and Fianna Fáil have shown clearly whose side they are on. They are on the side of the landlords and the property speculators at the expense of homeless children and struggling workers and families. It is that attitude that truly sums up just how out of touch are all of those in government.

Earlier, I asked the Taoiseach if he accepts that his Minister's housing policies have failed. Faced with the evidence of rents reaching highs of €2,000 per month, people spending years spent on waiting lists for a council house, children waiting for Santa Claus in bed and breakfasts and family hubs and of more than 10,500 homeless people, the very best the Taoiseach could offer was spin, deflection and an appalling inability to admit that on this one, he and his Minister have got it wrong. Let us use tonight's motion as an opportunity. Let us start from scratch. Let us ditch the spin and let us take this motion as an opportunity to do something right. First, the Minister must go. That is the long and short of it. His Rebuilding Ireland policy is now in its fourth year and is simply not delivering. The problem has got worse. Figures released tonight show more than 10,500 people are now homeless, so the Minister is incapable of dealing with this crisis. He has demonstrated that time and again. We cannot keep coming in here, day in and day out, recounting the suffering of our people and the Minister's time has run out.

We need to set in motion a radical plan of home building both in respect of council and affordable homes to buy and rent. In this case, "affordable" should mean affordable to ordinary people. Sinn Féin has a plan for a public housing programme that will be the biggest that this State has ever seen. It must come at a pace and rate that will meet current need, pent-up demand and future demographic trends. Building social and affordable housing is the only long-term policy solution that can address this crisis and that can be done.

In the short term, we must tackle sky-high rents. We have a plan that would reduce rents by €1,500 per year using a rent freeze and tax credit for renters. That is the kind of targeted action needed instead of spin and bull. These targeted and concrete actions will help people. We must introduce the provisions of the No Consent, No Sale Bill 2019, which has been advocated by my colleague, Deputy Pearse Doherty, to empower ordinary people against circling vulture funds. That would help. We must also introduce a redress scheme for homeowners living in defective Celtic tiger properties. We must increase investment in local authority housing for retrofitting to ensure sustainability of our housing stock. These are common-sense suggestions that can work.

More than anything else, we must face the fact that doing nothing or the same things all over again simply will not be good enough. It is not good enough to keep spinning or to continue with business as usual. The solutions are there and the only thing now standing in our way is political will. I ask the House not to squander this opportunity because people are struggling. Now is the time to stand up for them and make a difference.

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