Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The worst thing about this is that with each Government, language means nothing. I hear what the Taoiseach is telling me, but the reality is that the Government is putting more than €1.2 billion directly into the private sector under the three schemes I mentioned. I did not mention other programmes such the help to buy scheme, which the Parliamentary Budget Office has clearly shown did not target the right people.

I really tire of this type of language. The Taoiseach did not put money in the budget to rectify the housing crisis. Homelessness is a symptom of it. In Galway, we will very soon have the same number of people on the HAP as in social housing. Can the Taoiseach imagine that? He is looking perplexed. The housing assistance payment has been the only game in town. We have privatised public housing. The Taoiseach keeps talking about social housing. The HAP is not a social housing programme. It is private housing temporarily lent to the State so the landlord and the developer can make a profit. The only person who loses out is the tenant, who has no security.

The Government made a further allocation to the Land Development Agency, which is clearly doing the job of a developer. Galway, one of the five cities destined to grow, has no master plan. Those responsible for Ceannt Station, the Galway Docks and the Dyke Road area are all doing their own thing. The city council is playing an inactive part in what the previous Tánaiste acknowledged is developer-led development. We have a major housing crisis as a consequence of Government policy. The Taoiseach did not avail of the opportunity to change that radically.

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