Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It has been over a year since the Minister, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, launched the Government’s housing plan, but very little has changed. We see families across Dublin languishing on social housing lists for more than 15 and 16 years. Only last week, we saw more than 10,800 people presenting as homeless, a new record. Some 3,220 of those homeless are children. That is some way of marking the one-year anniversary of this Government’s housing plan.

In the Minister, Deputy O'Brien's, two years in office, we have seen rents rise and rise, showing no sign of easing. There is a shortage of properties to rent. Those who are lucky and find a property could be paying anything up to €2,500 for a two-bedroom apartment in my constituency.

We have seen house prices rise month by month, making it more unaffordable for the average working family to buy a house. Constituents facing homelessness contact my office every single week. It is clear that we need a ban on evictions as we enter the winter months to prevent more families from being forced into homelessness.

The Government is being told its targets for both social and affordable housing will not be met this year, so that means 2020, 2021 and 2022 will have seen this Government miss the low targets it set. My party has presented any number of solutions to the Government in the past two years but the majority of them have fallen on deaf ears. Therefore, its plan is falling flat on its face. What is needed is a radical approach to housing. There is a need for the Minister and his Department to get a serious grip on this because things are going to get a lot worse.

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