Dáil debates

Tuesday, 11 May 2021

Residential Property Market: Motion [Private Members]

 

6:55 pm

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

The Sinn Féin motion stands up for young people. It puts those young people and their right to buy a home ahead of developers and institutional investment funds. The Government's policies continue to fail young people caught up in this housing crisis caused by this Government and its Fine Gael-led predecessors.

The Minister said he had the solutions when he was in opposition but now he in government and is continuing to act in the same way as Fine Gael. He is dancing to the tune of the developers and investment funds. The Minister knows this is wrong because he wrote a Bill to tackle this problem in the previous Dáil. Tweaks and smaller changes will not work; he must ban these practices outright.

The Minister must give young people a chance and give them hope. People are angry and they have every right to be. The now famous parliamentary party meetings last week indicated Fianna Fáil is blaming Fine Gael and Fine Gael is blaming Fianna Fáil for this mess but the people know who is to blame. This was caused equally by both parties. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have been and always will be on the side of big developers. The Government could change this today. They could surprise me and support this motion.

I will leave it at this:

To whom do we owe our allegiance today?

[...] the faceless men who for mark and dollar,

Betray her to the highest bidder.

I know where my allegiances sit. They sit with the young people all over this country who are desperate to own a home of their own.

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