Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

When will the Minister treat this emergency like it is an emergency and a crisis, and bring everything to bear to deal with it? We have often heard about Fianna Fáil's history on building houses when the State had no money. The Minister can talk about all the issues that there are from Covid right through to inflation rates and all the rest of it. We all accept that but let us be absolutely clear that the buck stops with the Minister as regards delivering for the people. It is a matter of doing it. People do not have much hope when they hear about €1 billion that has not been spent. They feel that it is the case of a government that does not understand exactly what the issue is for people.

I looked at daft.ie, as we all do from time to time, and I noticed it listed 15 houses in Dundalk, which is probably considerably more than the last time I looked. It made me feel somewhat hopeful because I was trying to get a couple of people across the line in a clientelist scenario. Then I looked at the prices: €1,650; €1,900; €1,950; and €2,200 for a three-bedroom house in the environs of Dundalk, which was unheard of before. This is a rent pressure zone. None of this is working in any shape or form. We really need to see delivery. We know it is local authority houses. We know the targets are not where they need to be. We know it is affordable homes and cost rental. We need to see the schemes. We cannot have this scenario where Government party Members blame the local authorities which then bat it back to the Minister. That is not good enough. We just need to see solutions.

I think political pressure had an impact on the tenant in situscheme. In some local authority areas, the rules were manoeuvred. Therefore, some people are able to get across the gap. My fear is that as local authorities attempt to purchase some of these properties, they will have issues in dealing with the housing department. We all know how under-resourced they are. People earlier spoke earlier about some people waiting up to six months to get on a housing list. This opportunity was not taken when the election ban was there. As more people face eviction, how do we absolutely ensure that they will have the resources to be able to deliver quickly enough, that they will be able to do this and that it is absolutely streamlined? We are also hearing of different local authorities operating these systems differently. There needs to be an absolute answer from Government to ensure this happens. These are only bit actions that need to be taken. We need to do serious business. There has been absolute failure by the Government.

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