Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I do not want to hurt the Taoiseach's sensitive feelings about who used the word "emergency" first. When it comes to housing, we are at it. Our Uachtaráin, a man who is never at a loss for finding the right word, called it a "disaster" when he visited my constituency of Kildare North a few months ago. A decent home is normally an indication of a decent society, but it has become a privilege under Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, while they stand over the cruel status quo they have created over the past 100 years. The Green Party stands idly by, as the Labour Party did before it.

We in Sinn Féin ran a housing survey in Kildare. A hardworking couple with two young children responded:

We have moved nine times since our five-year-old was born due to the insecurity of private renting. Our rent has increased by €600 since our first rented accommodation. We barely see each other as we are working alternative shifts for the children to be minded because childcare is so expensive. We have debt we cannot afford to pay back. We have no security blanket to fall on if one of us were to become unable to go to work. We have had to cut down on groceries, go weeks at a time with no oil as we cannot afford the increase in price, yet we wear ourselves out working just to get by. We make too much for social housing and nowhere near enough to ever afford a mortgage or even pay off the debt we took out on our car. We have struggled since we left college and we are still not stable. Our children have no home.

This family is not alone. In north Kildare, people in their 60s are sofa surfing or sleeping in box rooms or in their cars. Younger people, who are parents, are now back living with their parents or grandparents, who thought they would have the house to themselves.

The Government has had its chance on housing multiple times and it has failed and it still has the support of "I'm alright Jacks". If you are not an I'm alright Jack or Jacqueline, if you believe in society and community, if you believe that a home is a human right, or if you believe it is not alright for people not to have a home in a modern economy in the 21st century, come out on Saturday and show solidarity at 1 o'clock, Parnell Square, and raise the roof.

See this speech in context