Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

Aontú is a left-of-centre Irish republican grassroots movement. We seek a prosperous Ireland where, when one works hard, takes risks and invests time, effort and resources, one receives a fair economic return for that work. We understand that there must be a spark in the economy, an incentive that will drive people to achieve for their family. We also seek a safety net for families with regard to housing, healthcare, education and income when times are tough. We seek a society that is cohesive, which is important to who we are.

Globally and in Ireland there is an increasing shift of wealth into the hands of the few. Unbelievably, 2,153 billionaires across the world hold as much wealth today as 4.6 billion people who make up about 60% of the population of the planet. This is a radical shift and concentration of wealth into the hands of the few. It is a major injustice and a significant destabilising element in societies around the world. Housing is one manifestation of this growing inequality. The provision of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, ICESCR, that stood out to me was the comprehensive and substantive right to adequate housing. Inherent in this right are adequate privacy, space, security, lighting, ventilation, basic infrastructure and an adequate location with regard to work and basic facilities, all at a reasonable cost. This seems like a pipe dream in many people's lives in this country. It also entails protections and commitments to eliminate homelessness and to provide safeguards against forced evictions.

A number of weeks ago, I raised the fact, for the first time in this Chamber, that nearly 60 people who were homeless had died in Dublin alone. I also brought the fact that people from outside Dublin who were homeless in Dublin were being refused services and told to go back to their own counties despite the fact that these individuals were told to adhere to Covid regulations and not travel. We saw the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, from Fianna Fáil, appear on "RTÉ Investigates" weeks after that debate in Leinster House and simply shrug his shoulders when confronted with this shocking practice. The Minister promised an investigation into the deaths of those people who died while homeless in Dublin. Where stands that investigation? No information has been circulated in that regard.

We see house prices spiralling again and the building of houses grinding to a halt this year. A whole generation is trapped in spiralling rents. It is amazing that there is a situation in Dublin where the average rent is €2,044. If one is on the minimum wage, one's gross income in a year for a 40-hour week is €3,000 less than the average rent in Dublin, and that is the figure before tax. It is startling.

Yesterday, the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland confirmed what people understood to be true. It said that the cheapest accommodation that one can buy in Dublin is €375,000. It indicated that one has to have an income of €100,000, either as an individual or a couple, to get that cheapest housing unit in Dublin. After ten long years under Fine Gael, one has to have an income of €100,000 a year or more if one expects to own accommodation. It is incredible and shocking. It obliterates all the spin about housing that we have heard from Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil in recent times. It puts into sharp relief the reality of Government policies in these people's lives.

Aontú is committed to justice in the workplace and the right of workers across Ireland to a fair wage for fair work and to allow for decent living conditions. Low pay and precarious work affect the lives of many workers across Ireland. Ireland has many laws about workers' rights but inadequate enforcement of these rights. We need a strong, well-resourced agency to inspect compliance with labour legislation, including practices related to minimum pay, contract work and rights to parental leave and sick pay.

Aontú also believes in self-determination for the Irish people. Self-determination was a key driving force behind the revolution here 100 years ago but Brexit has shown that self-determination of the people in the North of Ireland is still ignored. The Tories took the democratic position of the people in the North of Ireland with regard to Brexit, scrunched it into a ball and threw it into the wastepaper basket. Self-determination is being withheld from the people in the North and there is a debate growing across Ireland about Irish unity. Covid has been another driving force in that debate. The inability of the Administrations, North and South, simply to co-operate for the protection of people's lives has been startling. Despite this debate, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party refuse to remove their heads from the sand in respect of this issue.

Aontú is a pluralist movement built on the philosophy of Wolfe Tone, according to which all citizens have a right to be who they are to the fullest extent, without fear or favour from the State. Ireland is a fiercely orthodox and uniform State. The politics of Ireland has radically changed over the last 30 years, but the intolerance of differing views is as it always was. Establishment Ireland wears the clothes of diversity and declares that all views are welcome on the full spectrum of opinion, as long as they conform with its own views. Group thinking and herd mentality are the curse of Irish society. The credit and property crisis of 12 years ago is the perfect example of this. People who criticised the policies of Fianna Fáil at the time were demonised. Open and respectable debate is critical in rigorously holding the establishment to account. Open and honest debate is not the enemy of a functioning democracy; it is a pivotal part of democracy. This uniformity is not helped by an overly concentrated media market, which is dominated by RTÉ. Shockingly, Aontú is the only political party in this House that supports the universal right to life. It is the only party in the House that believes that everybody has the human right to life and that everyone's life should be protected, even the most vulnerable. Universal means everyone. If a section of humanity is removed from those rights, it is no longer a universal right; it is only a sectional right.

I am delighted that Deputy Pringle has brought this debate to the table. It is an important issue that we must focus on in this time of Covid. While Covid eclipses most other issues currently, due to the enormity of the crisis, there lie dozens of significant crises within society that also need our attention.

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