Dáil debates

Tuesday, 12 July 2022

Raise the Roof: Motion [Private Members]

 

9:00 pm

Photo of Martin BrowneMartin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Through the years, Fianna Fáil has clocked up a shambolic track record when it comes to housing. Generations will bear the brunt of the crisis it got this country into, but it has learned nothing. Fine Gael subsequently facilitated the selling out of families and invited in cuckoo and vulture funds. Those traditions continue today, no matter what spin the Minister and others tried to put on this situation earlier. The fact that since the Government came to power, the number of homeless adults in County Tipperary more than doubled shows the extent of the Government's failure. One does not hear Deputies and Senators from Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael trying to sell those figures in their constituencies. Do they know how many people are sleeping in cars in County Tipperary this evening, or how many kids are in a different house each night? They do not know because those figures are not collected.

Sinn Féin warned the Government that lifting the ban on evictions would lead to this tsunami of homelessness, but it would not listen then either. To take the example of the Tipperary-Cashel-Cahir municipal district, there are 841 people on the waiting list, with five council houses available. There are 16 properties available to rent in the entire county - the biggest inland county - which has a population of more than 160,000. Meanwhile, the Minister and his constituency colleagues remain intent on following the failing housing plan. Does the fact that 184 children in the mid-west and south east are homeless indicate a successful policy, as the Government tried to spin today? The Taoiseach spoke earlier about how well his Government has done. Does that include the fracturing of families or the rise in mental health issues? Does it account for no affordable houses being built in County Tipperary in 2021? I recently asked the Minister if he was prepared to allow councils to take emergency measures to address the housing crisis. I got an unrelated stock response. It is shameful.

We have a broad campaign calling for an increase in direct capital investment in public housing, real action to use vacant homes, an emergency ban on evictions, a ban on rent increases and measures to cut private rents. We are also calling for an immediate referendum to enshrine the right to housing in the Constitution. We need this to protect the public against the Government's failed policies and its approach to housing as much as anything else.

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