Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The issues of housing and rip-off rents were on the agenda almost every week during the previous Dáil. Housing was the number one issue on most doorsteps during the general election campaign in February. For more than a decade, workers and young families have been let down by the failure to tackle housing affordability and the rental crisis. They have been caught up in a never-ending cycle of being unable to afford a deposit because of the cost of renting. Government support for the motion would signal its intent to rectify the issues of housing affordability and spiralling rents and show that Fianna Fáil will stand by the promises it made during the general election campaign.

The current average rent in Dublin is €2,000 and the average house price is an eye-watering €380,000. People in my constituency of Dublin Bay North cannot afford houses at that price level. We have a locked-out generation of young people who will never be able to afford a home of their own if housing policies do not change.

There are hard-working families earning too much to qualify for social housing who cannot qualify for a mortgage to buy their own home, while we have sites such as the Lawrence Lands on the Oscar Traynor Road, which was earmarked for 640 units, remaining untouched since this was granted in 2015. This is not good enough. We need the Ministers to invest substantially in public housing units for the sake of young families and those young people who are locked out. We need the Ministers to commit to an agreed definition of affordability and then deliver those affordable homes under that definition. They need to deliver them fast.

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