John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have 11,397 reasons I have no confidence in the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. This is the number of homeless people who were in emergency accommodation in October. Many more are sleeping rough tonight on the streets of this capital and of towns right across the State. This winter, the past week of which has brought even more untold hardship, suffering and death on our streets, the housing emergency, crisis and debacle that the Minister oversees as the member of the Government responsible for housing is soul-destroying. Generations of ordinary people have been locked out of homeownership. Rents, which are among the highest in Europe, are leaching the lifeblood out of our young people. In the past 12 years, rents have risen by over 85% by comparison with the EU average of 18%.

My county, Wicklow, which has the highest rents in the country outside Dublin, has witnessed a year-on-year rent increase of 16.6%. Rents are rising at the highest rate since the height of the Celtic tiger era. This equates to an average cost of €1,846 per month for ordinary people to fork out in a crushing cost-of-living crisis. This is a measure of the Minister’s failure; a failure that continues to ruin the lives of many people right across the State. It is time for the Minister to go. In fact, it is time for the entire Government to go.

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