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

Fianna Fáil has had two years in charge of housing and it has failed. Things have got much worse under the Minister's wardship. The Minister's failure to see this as a housing emergency is a slap in the face to the many people who come into my constituency office daily. They may be trapped in back bedrooms, on long waiting lists for social housing, or unable to afford housing. They may earn too much to be on the social housing waiting list but they cannot afford to rent because of the failed policies. Even this morning, we see on daft.ie that the increase in rents is the highest since daft.ie started to produce records. We have record levels of homelessness, with almost 11,000 people who are homeless. The Minister should look at the facts and declare a housing emergency.

Next month will see a change of Taoiseach as Fianna Fáil willingly hands the baton to Fine Gael. It is happy to hand over responsibility for the housing crisis to a party that has been in government for 11 years. Passing the baton from one failed Taoiseach to another failed Taoiseach will not fix the housing crisis. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. The incoming Taoiseach said from his ivory castle last week that the grass is not greener when it comes to the thousands of young people who are being forced to emigrate. He basically questioned our young people's intelligence with this remark. Young people will research housing, wages and the cost of living before they decide to emigrate. They make informed choices. Sinn Féin wants to see our young people come home. We want to put policies in place that will entice them to come home.

If he was the Minister responsible for housing, Deputy Eoin Ó Broin would deliver 20,000 public homes to meet social and affordable housing needs next year. This would stop multiple generations of families from living under the same roof as has happened under Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. Cost rental and real affordable purchase schemes would target those who earn too much for social housing support who cannot rent or buy at the market rates.

Putting one month's rent back into renters' pockets and introducing a ban on rent increases for three years would give renters the ability to breathe and take some pressure off the spiralling increases in rent. It is time for the Minister to do his job and accept the reality of the crisis he is overseeing. This motion also urges people to support the upcoming Raise the Roof rally in Dublin on Saturday, 26 November at 1 p.m. in Parnell Square.

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