Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is crystal clear that Rebuilding Ireland has failed. Regardless of how many times the statistics are recycled or quoted by the Minister of State or the Minister, the evidence is overwhelming. The record number of people in homelessness is proof of this failure. The record, all-time high rents are more evidence. The squalid conditions that many renters are forced to live in shows this. The thousands of adult children and young families forced to live in their parents' home is further proof. The dogs in the street know that Rebuilding Ireland has failed. The only places that one will hear otherwise are in the ivory towers of Government Buildings. We often hear the Taoiseach say that he cannot just build houses overnight. He clearly does not realise that Fine Gael has been in government for almost nine years. No one expects thousands of homes to be built overnight but what we did expect was the realistic ambition to build tens of thousands of houses over the last decade and the Government simply has not delivered that.

The Minister of State always talks about the issue of supply, but he and the Minister have failed to tackle one of the biggest blockages in this area, namely, void houses not being brought back into use. In the previous vote of no confidence in the Minister in September 2018, I raised the issue of 70 such houses in Limerick city. Today there are 151. The Minister of State cannot tell me that his system is working. These houses take a lot less money and time to put back into service and public use. It should have been a priority to ensure that they were back into use and that there are no empty voids left lingering for years while thousands wait on the housing list. Again, this has not been done by his Government.

I commend my party colleague for bringing this common-sense Bill forward which will really help renters. I hope that in the general election next year people will turn to a Sinn Féin Government that will take the much-needed, radical decisions that are needed to help workers, renters and their families. I am glad to see that the impending general election has awoken Fianna Fáil from its three-year hibernation and that it is ready to support our Bill.

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