Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Tá an Comhaontas Glas sásta tacaíocht aa thabhairt don rún seo. We have no confidence in the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy. We have no confidence in him as the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government. We have no confidence in this Government's ability to tackle this housing and homelessness crisis. It has shown time and again that its solutions are not working and that it has no willingness to change.

This motion is not just about a lack of confidence in the Minister. We had no confidence in his predecessor, or any of the Ministers with responsibility for housing who have been in office since Fine Gael entered government. Since 2014, Fine Gael has worn a set of ideological blinkers that prevented the party from recognising that our housing crisis is a result of market failures. It is clear that market solutions will not solve this problem. The obsession with market solutions is an article of faith among the Minister and his colleagues. No amount of suffering and no number of families spending Christmas in hotels or bed and breakfast accommodation seem able to convince the Government that its fundamental approach to this issue is flawed.

It seems to me that to call our current situation a housing "crisis" is an insult to those who have suffered and who continue to suffer under it. A crisis is something that occurs suddenly and demands immediate action. We have been told by Fine Gael every year since 2014 that houses cannot be built overnight and that its solution is just around the corner. I believe that the term housing "disaster" might be more apt than housing "crisis". The Minister and his colleagues stand for continuing to tolerate this disgrace, this status quo. We need change.

The Minister released the latest homelessness figures for the month of October mere hours before this debate tonight. The figures were not released at the end of the month, which was last week. Instead they conveniently arrived with a very limited timeframe for Opposition Deputies to study them before tonight's debate. We have, however, had a look at them and they are not easy reading. There are now 10,514 people in homeless emergency accommodation across the State. There was an increase of 117 people homeless in a single month this year. When homelessness figures are going up, week after week, month after month, and year after year it is a sign that something is not working. Nothing is working in the Minister's housing policy.

It is not as though the Opposition has been quiet with our alternative approaches. There is hardly a Deputy on this side of the House who has not put forward a constructive, practical, alternative solution to the housing and homelessness crisis and yet, almost without exception, these solutions have been ignored, dismissed and at times ridiculed by the Government. This Dáil passed a Green Party motion calling for the provision of cost rental public housing at scale on public land. In our pre-budget submission this year we provided for a huge investment in this sustainable form of housing, which will ensure a range of diverse tenants in stable, secure rental accommodation for decades. We provided for the same proposals last year but the Government ignored it. The Government is simply unwilling to build public housing on public land in the numbers needed to tackle this housing crisis. More than three years ago we introduced into this House legislative amendments on a cross-party basis with a number of Opposition parties for rental security for tenants. The previous Minister, Deputy Coveney, opposed it then and his successor has opposed these rights every time since, because it would decrease the property values of landlords. People are without homes. Agus muid ag smaoineamh ar choinneal a lasadh san fhuinneog ar Oíche Nollag na bliana 2019, is scannalach an rud é go bhfuil beagnach 4,000 páiste ag fanacht in óstáin. This is 3,826 children, mar mháthair agus mar Theachta Dála, táim an-bhuartha faoi thodhchaí agus faoi mheabhair shláinte na bpáistí seo. This is a result of Fine Gael's housing policy. It is a result of Rebuilding Ireland. It is a result of favouring the powers of landlords to evict tenants for almost any reason over the rights of tenants to safe, secure and warm homes. It is a result of endorsing and transcribing every wish of the construction industry instead of listening to the horror and anguish of those families who are without a home as we stand here tonight, and who will be without a home this Christmas. Níl aon muinín againn as an Aire.

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