Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I challenge the Deputy's assertion that Government did nothing to help renters during the pandemic. That is the assertion I challenge. I also challenge the Deputy's sincerity and accuse her of a lack of honesty in this regard. Just last week, she opposed plans for 1,200 houses in Donabate. What about renters there who could have got affordable housing or those who could have got social housing from that project? What did the Deputy's party do? It opposed the development. How many more housing projects from which people who are currently renting could have got houses has it opposed? With regard to housing, the Deputy's party has been engaged in hypocrisy on a grand scale. It has no coherent proposals. It just keeps attacking and opposing housing project after housing project. That is the level of sincerity that the Deputy's party and the Deputy as its leader have been articulating for quite some time. It is all about votes. It is all about exploiting an issue rather than contributing to its resolution. We have protected renters during the emergency period of the pandemic. We have done everything we possibly can within the law to do so and we are going to do more but, fundamentally, we have to provide more affordable housing for young people and more social housing. I would appreciate it if the Deputy and her party would get the finger out, start doing something about that for once and support parties on every council across the country to get housing built.

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