Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Tá impleachtaí anois ag an ngéarchéim tithíochta do chomhlachtaí agus do sheirbhísí poiblí, dár scoileanna agus dár n-ospidéil, ar fud an Stáit. Níl altraí ábalta tithíocht a fháil in aice leis na hospidéil ina n-oibríonn siad. Tá altraí sa tír seo againn anois a chaitheann leath dá gcuid pá ar chíos achan mhí agus go minic ar thithíocht atá mí-oiriúnach, agus tá go leor daoine ann nach bhfuil ábalta fiú amháin áit chónaithe a fháil ar chor ar bith. The Government's housing disaster is now leading to a staff crisis for business and our public services, including schools and hospitals. Teachers and nurses are unable to afford housing near the schools in which they teach and the hospitals in which they work. A recent survey carried out by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, found that two out of three nursing graduates are considering emigrating, with one in three considering leaving our cities. We now have nurses spending half their salaries on extortionate rents, often in unsuitable accommodation, with many not able to find a place at all. We cannot open additional beds if we do not have the nurses to staff them. Our nurses should be able to look forward to a future in which they can build lives for themselves at home, but thousands of nurses do not have that opportunity.

Many of them have written to Sinn Féin in recent weeks to share their heartbreaking experience of struggling to get by. Reading through what they have told us, one can see very clearly that they are exhausted, anxious and overwhelmed with stress, they struggle to find accommodation, they fork out extortionate sums on rent every month and they worry endlessly about their future. Sadly, many of them see no light at the end of the tunnel. They have written to us of their worries about being forced to emigrate just to have a decent quality of life. I will give the Tánaiste a couple of examples.

A 21-year-old student nurse in her final year in Limerick told us in her own words:

Last year I was homeless for the first semester of college as my accommodation fell through last minute. I wasted all my savings staying in hotels to attend my lectures and then had to sofa surf.

I couldn’t afford much else during this time and didn’t have facilities to cook my own food in hotels. I lost so much weight due to this and the stress... I’m currently looking for different accommodation to move out before Christmas but it’s proving impossible to even get a response from landlords.

As soon as I qualify I will be leaving the country, along with most of my classmates, as the stress is genuinely not worth staying. All I want is a secure place to live.

Another nurse wrote to us. She is from County Louth. She wrote:

I’m 33 and my husband is 34. We both live in the garage of my parents’ house. We will never be able to afford our own home.

We’re emigrating next year for good. It’s a shame as Ireland is such a beautiful country, it’s our home.

I could put dozens more heartbreaking letters like that on the public record. These people are qualified and trained. They want to look after patients and want to provide for our health service but they see no future as a result of the housing crisis the Tánaiste and his party have caused and sustained. These nurses have told us of their anxiety. Many of them have told us they do not see a future here. However, the Tánaiste has told these nurses in the past that he knows better. He has lectured them like he has other public sector workers and other young people who have decided to emigrate. He has told them that the grass is not always greener on the other side. However, no one really knows the reality these nurses are living or the difficulties they face better than themselves. The housing crisis is wearing them down. It is forcing them out of this country to seek a better future for themselves. The facts are blatantly obvious for anybody to see.

When will the penny drop? When will the Government take action? This is no longer a housing crisis; this is a social crisis. This is creeping into every sphere of Irish society, from education to health to business. When will the Government introduce a three-year ban on rent increases, as we have been calling for for many years, to ensure that a month's rent is put back into renters' pockets through a refundable tax credit?

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