Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the work of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Yout hand how successful it has been throughout this crisis. As the Minister will know, I am a member of the Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability Integration and Youth. Everything seems to fall under the remit of that committee. I have spoken in the past about the mental health challenges that displaced Ukrainian people will face when they land on our shores.

Today, however, I will focus on the housing situation we are in. The Government has failed spectacularly to get to grips with the housing crisis, and now we have a crisis upon a crisis. The Government's housing plan is not fit for purpose. The Government hopes to reach 10,000 social and 4,000 affordable homes by 2025. That is not good enough, and the bar was set deliberately low. The Government seems to be playing politics with people's lives. Before the war in Ukraine, our housing system was in a deep crisis. The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage referred to blurring the lines. Last week, he was forced into an embarrassing climbdown. For weeks his office had been talking about the fair deal homes, local authority acquisitions and social housing voids being used for Ukrainian refugees.

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