Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Sinn Féin for tabling the motion. It is not the way to do policy to force us to bring a motion that, on this occasion, is tabled by Sinn Féin. There are then amendments, some of which I understand. I could not agree with some of them because they are not enforceable. We are left like this, dealing with policy in this manner, which is totally unacceptable. If the Government had bona fides on this matter, it would have tabled a debating time and allowed us to hear the measures it brought in while the moratorium was in place, but it did not do that. It has been forced, screaming every step of the way, to tell us what it is doing.

In the meantime, the Simon Community in Galway is telling us we are now heading for the tourism season. Accommodation that was being used for emergency accommodation will not be available. I know it is difficult for the Minister and the Minister of State to listen to all this but it is important. This is the only time we get a few minutes to try to highlight issues. We are not negative. We are not here to say we are bound by ideology. I am here because almost 12,000 people - there is no need to exaggerate because the figures are so damning - 11,754 are homeless and the Government is planning to lift the moratorium on evictions coming into effect on Lá na nAmadán, April Fools' Day. It does not even see the lack of humour in that. People will have no place to go. We have repeatedly asked the Government where they will go and it has no answer.

The Simon Community, which is on the ground in Galway, does a quarterly report. No places are available. Everybody has read out a testimony. Time will not allow me to do so. One family is waiting and waiting with no place to go. They are trying to raise four children, one of whom is doing exams, and have children as young as four and five who have nowhere to go. Did the Minister and the Minister of State come to the House to tell us what their plan of action was? No, they did not. They have given empty boasting. I will specifically address that in my last minute. I will highlight the task force in Galway that was set up because there was a crisis there. Finally, the Government conceded to setting up a task force. Where are the reports? There has not been one report. The chair was to have a report by November 2022. We are now almost in April and there has been no report on the analysis of the housing crisis in Galway where rents are the second worst in the country.

The Minister boasted about the schemes that have been brought in. The Taoiseach and Tánaiste told us about the help-to-buy scheme. That scheme is helping the wrong people. The analysis that has been done, and various reports, indicate that we would not start here but it is now embedded and so cannot be taken out. Nearly €1 billion has been allocated to the help-to-buy scheme, which has helped consultants. They are in my family. I say avail of the scheme but who is being helped through the scheme must be analysed, when a quarter or a third of applicants do not need help with deposits. There is then the mortgage-to-rent scheme. Not a single analysis has ever been done on the value for money of that scheme. A company has now been invited to come in. I understand the Housing Agency, or whatever the relevant agency is, has suspended all contracts with that private company in respect of the scheme.

All these are jigsaw pieces the Government picks and chooses to suit the narrative, while all the time we have commodified housing. We have made it impossible. The Minister trades insults across a room and says the Opposition does not want people to have houses. Yes, I do. I want them to have public and private housing. I want the prices to come down. I want to stop the absolute idiocy of trading empty insults across a room and an acknowledgement that the very policies the Government is pursuing are causing the problem.

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