Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That was mentioned earlier. It has been happening for years in this city. There are plenty of houses but unfortunately they are in the wrong hands and they are being used for the wrong purposes. Child homelessness is endemic once again. There are more than 3,000 children without a place to call home. This is the official number.

We do no know how many are sharing box rooms or sitting rooms at night, with their parents, in homes of other family members, or just staying with mammy's or daddy's friends.

This Government has been in power for two years. Fine Gael has been in power for 11 long years. Under the combined rule of these parties, rents, house prices and homelessness have all skyrocketed. None of this is by accident. It was not always the way, but Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are wedded to the idea that private development is the only path forward. The ideal of the State providing housing does not gel with their world view. The result is 3,000 homeless children.

They are even warning now of a housing crisis for pensioners on the horizon. The Government reacted with shock and surprise, but what did it expect when home ownership or housing stability is just a pipe dream for whole generations of Irish people? More than 80,000 vacant homes have been identified in the census. Think of the impact we could make on homelessness figures if even 10% of those could be brought back on stream. However, the Minister for Finance has fought tooth and nail against bringing in an effective vacant property tax and we have a Government that is best friends with the speculator and developer, while children go without a roof over their heads.

Most of the solutions coming from Government have caused more damage. The so-called help-to-buy and shared equity schemes only served to pump more money into an already broken system, raise house prices further and create a system where only investing firms can afford to swoop in and hoover up properties, while workers and families give up the dream of ever owning their own home.

Budget 2023 must deliver a radical shift in housing policy, as demanded by the Raise the Roof, homes-for-all campaign. We have to tackle the speculative investment in land and land hoarding. We must end outrageous tax reliefs on rents and capital gains for institutional cuckoo and vulture funds and there should be a referendum to enshrine the right to housing in the Constitution.

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