Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Sinn Féin does not have confidence in Deputy Darragh O'Brien as Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, the Opposition in this Dáil does not have confidence in the housing Minister and, more important, the people do not have confidence in him. How could they have confidence in a housing Minister who, with a straight face, says we do not have a housing emergency, or in a Minister who has turned to denial when the consequences of his failures are writ large in the everyday lives of people who, despite doing everything right, still cannot put a secure, affordable roof over their heads?

It has been three long years since the most recent election and the Taoiseach said his would be the Government to fix housing. He sang that from the rooftops. He has spent those years telling us housing is the number one priority for the Government. If that were true, we should have seen real action, ambition and urgency from the Minister, but we have not seen those things. We have abject failure from a tired Government and a housing Minister clearly out of his depth. The Minister has simply recycled the types of policies that got us into this mess in the first place, putting the interests of big developers, wealthy investors and corporate landlords ahead of those in housing need every time. Of course, this Minister is just the latest in a long line of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael housing Ministers wedded to the belief that in the end, the market will resolve the emergency, and it is the people who live with the dire consequences of that approach, namely, record house prices, record rents and record homelessness. That is the reality of the Government's housing legacy and it is Deputy O'Brien's legacy as housing Minister.

The Taoiseach gaslighting Opposition Deputies, the Tánaiste telling desperate young people that the grass is not always greener, and mindless, delusional, self-pitying guff cannot disguise that fact. You would imagine that when faced with such a social catastrophe, the Government should respond with ambitious social and affordable housing programmes. The Government has been told repeatedly that large-scale public housing is the answer - only this week, the ESRI restated that reality - but we get housing targets so out of kilter with the gravity of the emergency that the Minister's own officials have rung the alarm bell. We have targets set and targets missed, deadlines set and deadlines missed. That is the performance of the Minister amid the most serious housing emergency in the history of the State.

A common refrain from the Government, reiterated by the Taoiseach and the Minister, is that housing cannot be resolved overnight. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have had more than a decade to resolve housing and they have succeeded only in making things worse. Not alone has the housing emergency robbed people of the ability to put a roof over their heads but now it is impacting on education, healthcare and jobs and investment, areas vital to Ireland's progress, prosperity and success. Teachers and healthcare workers throughout Ireland are struggling to find affordable housing, schools and hospitals are struggling to recruit and retain staff, and schoolchildren and patients are the ones paying the price. As a result of Government failure, many teachers and nurses have simply given up. We are now losing them to the chance of a better life abroad. Business organisations now tell us the lack of a coherent direction from the Government on housing is turning off investors. Reports from chambers of commerce in counties such as Waterford contain case studies of people turning down good jobs with good salaries because they cannot find an affordable place to live. The Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment has himself admitted that the housing crisis has placed the regional enterprise plan in real jeopardy.

There we have it: a housing emergency, with healthcare, education and investment in jobs affected, and it goes on and on. This contagion has happened because successive Governments have stood back and hidden behind excuses. First, the then Government could not fix housing because of the international financial crisis and the crisis here designed by their good selves. Then it was Brexit, then it was the pandemic and now the Government says it cannot fix housing because of the inflationary crisis. People are not naive. We all know these developments brought challenges - for sure - but those were challenges to be met with ambition and determination, not difficulties to be hidden behind by a Government to cop out of its responsibilities. The common denominator in this never-ending housing crisis is the presence of a Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael-led Government with a Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael housing Minister. An entire generation has come of age listening to those parties' jaded excuses and broken promises, they are sick of a Government talking about the construction of houses they will never be able to afford-----

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