Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach saying that they are under construction now - five years later - reinforces the point I was trying to make. It is five years later. The LDA is not exactly hitting the ground running. That literally reinforces the point I made. The Taoiseach said that we all need to understand that it takes time. I understand that. The point I am making is that Fine Gael has been in government for 12 years. How much time does the Taoiseach want?

The Government's attacks have become as predictable as they are weak. Every week the Government fires back at the Opposition about objecting to house building. I did a quick Google search earlier and found reports of Fine Gael Deputies and councillors objecting to the building of 12,000 homes across Dublin between 2019 and 2022. These attacks on the Opposition sound increasingly desperate. The Government's continued attempt to blame us for its failure is not fooling anyone. Fine Gael has been in government for 12 years and almost every commitment it has made on housing has been broken. We have record homelessness, record house prices, record rents and now the Government is about to make a disaster even worse by ending a no-fault eviction ban - we are only calling it an eviction ban but it is a no-fault one - in the middle of a housing disaster, making thousands more people homeless. Fine Gael's legacy in housing is one of repeated and abject failure. We all know it is not the Opposition's fault. Does the Taoiseach think people should have confidence in this Government's ability to solve the housing disaster at this point?

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