Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

As we speak, almost all emergency homeless accommodation in the State is full or under major pressure. The demands placed on the entire housing system from accommodating Ukrainians and the record numbers seeking asylum in Ireland, on top of housing policies that are simply not working, are creating this nightmare situation for so many people. Like many other Deputies, I am inundated with people looking for somewhere to call home. Every weekend, I hold clinics all over west Cork and nearly 70% of people are there to see if I can help them to get a home. There are people from all walks of life, including people on low incomes and on social welfare who qualify for HAP, but still there are no houses available for people who have full-time jobs but just cannot afford a mortgage. They have no hope of ever getting a mortgage but they cannot qualify for HAP as their so-called income is too high.

We then have other people who are living in a toxic environment but who cannot leave their family home as there is nowhere to go. There is somewhere available for 12 weeks but what happens after the 12 weeks are up? They still have nowhere to go and some end up going back to the toxic environment they were first in.

The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage has consistently claimed that Ireland does not have a housing emergency. He should try telling that to any one of our 11,000 homeless people or the 130,000 people who are left to languish on social housing waiting lists. The simple reality is that his policies are failing the public and his assertion that an emergency does not exist is completely disconnected from reality. The Government and the Minister have made much noise about the fact their Housing for All plan provides for an annual €4 billion budget.

I appreciate Sinn Féin bringing forward the motion. I need to use my remaining time to raise the issue of planning in rural Ireland. We need solutions. What we have has created problems even with regard to planning on islands. I was talking to a gentleman from an island during the week. He had a family member who spent €10,000 trying to get planning and in making sure every report was carried out. At the last minute, it was turned down because there was a bit of heather on the ground, apparently. It is an astonishing situation if a local person spends that kind of money when that kind of codology is going on in planning.

There are huge problems and the Government has not got it right. The length and breadth of west Cork, there are towns and villages where raw sewage is going into the tide after all these years. The Government is pointing the finger at the poor farmer the whole time when it is the housing situation in this country that is the problem.

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