Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Ministers and welcome the opportunity to speak on this important motion. Housing was one of the biggest issues of February's general election. People who I met on the campaign told me they were put to the pin of their collar and mentally stressed. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil were in power for the last four years and have failed to deliver affordable homes to rent or buy in my constituency of Cork East. As of today, there were just 333 properties to rent in County Cork. In my home town of Midleton, a two-bedroom apartment will set one back by €1,150 a month. A three-bedroom house in Ballymacoda will set one back by €1,730 a month. A two-bedroom house in Watergrasshill will set one back by €900 a month. In Cobh, a one-bedroom apartment is €840 a month. How do people survive with this?

Working families cannot afford to pay their rent and survive. People with disabilities are like somebody who is forgotten. What is the chance of anybody on €208 a week renting anything? They have no hope. This is why I call on the House to support this motion. The motion says to build public housing developments on public land, led by local authorities, to deliver affordable homes, affordable cost rental homes, and to use long-term low interest borrowing from the Housing Finance Agency, the European Investment Bank and our credit unions. No one should have to live to work. We should be able to work to live. The Government must undertake one of the largest ever housing building programmes in the State and this will be the only way to deliver what is needed. I ask the House to support Sinn Féin's motion.

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