Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend Deputy Eoin Ó Broin. Urgent action is needed if the Government is not to condemn another generation to a yet more precarious rental situation. It goes beyond indifference to describe successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments' attitude to housing. Do not get me started on Labour and the Greens. They acted as a mudguard when policies were introduced that stopped the building of public houses on public land. They would have us believe they did nothing.

Last year, we had an election at which housing was one of the main issues raised at the doors. The people who voted in that election wanted action and what they got was indifference and inaction. We have revelation after revelation that shows that the Government is working against the people. On the one hand, it pretends to do something about it and, on the other, it is investing in the very cuckoo funds that have moved into the nest of the first-time buyers, and the very vulture funds that are picking at the carcass of any of the hopes of ordinary workers of renting or owning their own homes.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to buy a home, given the cost of housing has increased by 30% since 2016, while the cost of renting has increased by 44% in the same period. The Government announces plans to great fanfare but it has not delivered. In 2016, Rebuilding Ireland promised to deliver 2,000 affordable rental homes by 2018. To date, not a single affordable rental home has been delivered.

It does not have to be this way. Sinn Féin in government will turn housing policy away from benefiting vulture funds and other institutional investors and developers and will turn the tide back in favour of ordinary workers and ordinary families. The Government does not want to solve the housing crisis. It would not suit the cosy cartel of Government Deputies and their investments or their actual involvement in these vultures. I am inundated with emails from people who are biding their time until the next election. The dogs in the street know that this Government cannot solve this crisis. It should stand aside and let somebody do it who can do it.

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