Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Last week, the Taoiseach's colleague, the Tánaiste, Deputy Varadkar, enraged hard-pressed renters when he said that "one person's rent is another person's income".

Not to be outdone by him, this week the Taoiseach's man, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, told reporters the property market is not "out of control".

On what planet are these men living? Rents are way above the Celtic tiger peak, house prices are getting there too, homelessness is endemic and families are on council housing waiting lists for an eternity, some for 14 years and more. Even so, the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, the Taoiseach's man, the man charged with fixing housing, does not believe the property market is out of control. It is this kind of clueless, out-of-touch thinking behind the Minister's housing plan that means we again have a plan that puts developers and investors first. Will the Taoiseach get a grip on this crisis, drop his recycled, failed policies and deliver a plan that works for people?

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