Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

This is not personal. This is not about Deputy Eoghan Murphy as an individual; this is about a policy that has failed and the shameful consequences of that policy. Almost 4,000 children are suffering circumstances that no child should have to suffer. Indeed, the number is much higher because, while some eventually get out of homelessness, more enter it. Thousands of young people, children, mothers and families, thousands more who are couch-surfing, and tens of thousands more who are on waiting lists or who are in expensive rented accommodation where they are threatened with the possibility of eviction and have no security are being put through things that no family and no child should have to be put through. The Minister's policies have caused that.

He said that the Opposition does not put forward alternatives. That is dishonest so he should stop saying it. We have put forward Bills on the right to housing, which he voted against. We put forward Bills to stop evictions on the grounds of sale, which he voted against. We tabled a motion to stop land hoarding and property speculation and to introduce a genuinely affordable housing scheme, which he also voted against . Multiple motions and Bills to this effect have been tabled by the Opposition.

What needs to be done? We need at least 20,000 public and affordable houses to be built every year for the next five years. In addition, other measures are needed in the transition. Those transitional measures, however, must not be a substitute for building the public and affordable housing that we need. Sadly, these transitional measures are the Minister's policy. They are not temporary or transitional, but policy. That is why we have a housing crisis. One only has to read Rebuilding Ireland to see this. It is not just that the Minister is not meeting his targets; his targets are the problem. Three quarters of his plan to deal with the housing crisis relies on vulture funds and landlords who have no interest in solving that crisis but who are profiting handsomely from it. In fact, the worse the crisis gets, the more money they make. That is the reality the Minister's policy has facilitated.

Is it slowly getting better? I refer to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown. Does the Minister know how many council houses will be built in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown in 2020? Two. That is considerably worse than this year, for which the figures are abysmal as well. It is getting worse in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown. Rents are now averaging €2,000 a month. Who could afford that except very rich people? No ordinary working person can afford that. That is the mess the Minister has got us into because of his reliance on HAP and private landlords. It is not working. The policy has to go and that is why we will support this motion.

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