Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister calls this policy Housing for All. It will provide housing for some but not for ordinary people. It will provide housing for developers, landowners, speculators, investment and vulture funds, and greedy landlords but not for ordinary people who are trying to put a roof over their heads and pay a rent or mortgage that is sustainable. The Minister is there with his partners in government in Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party. Listening to the contributions of Deputies Bruton and Matthews you would think the housing crisis happened yesterday. The housing crisis happened over the past 20 years because of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael policy, which was supported during that time by the Green Party. For members of those parties to come in here and say that Housing for All will solve the problems and is the answer shows how little they understand the crisis people are facing. We are not talking about delivering houses in five or ten years' time. Houses need to be delivered now.

In Cork alone, there are 9,000 vacant and derelict houses. Last weekend, a group in Cork did a derelict tour of Cork city and it took them two and half hours to walk one portion of it. I thank the Community Action Tenants Union, CATU, Frank O'Connor, Jude Sherry and everyone who walked with them for what they did to highlight this dereliction. This was caused by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Do the Government Deputies not understand that or do they deny they are responsible? Will the Minister come to Cork city with me to meet Cork City Council officials? I will walk him around the city and show him the dereliction that is destroying Cork.

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