Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Ó Broin, not just for this motion but for all the work he does on the housing disaster or emergency - I do not know what word is being put on it these days. I listened to the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, make a fairly pitiful contribution. It could be fairly well summed up as the Minister saying the Government is doing its best and it could possibly be worse. It was shocking to sit here and listen to him throw bouquets at himself.

The Minister and I share a constituency in which I see the impact of this Government's policies. That includes the Green Party, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael together. I see the impacts of the policies the Government supports every day. Yesterday, in my office in Balbriggan, virtually every appointment I had was housing-related. The Minister of State has heard the stories but let us keep telling him to see if we can move him. I mention a case of a single mother with a nine-year-old child with autism who will be out in September. How will a nine-year-old child do in emergency accommodation, a hostel or hub if they are lucky enough to get into a hub? Would the Minister of State like it for his kids? I would not like it but that is what the Government has done. The Minister of State has to have an answer for that woman because the Government told her it will put her out on the road. The Government voted for evictions and now she is being evicted. Where will she go? The Government has to have an answer and if it does not have one, it should reverse its decision.

I have recently come back from North America where I met young people who have recently emigrated from the constituency the Minister and I share. They left good jobs and were making decent money when they were here. They left because they do not want to live with their parents. In recent years, we have seen that the average age at which an Irish person leaves the family home has been rising at a frightening rate. If the Minister of State was approaching 30 years of age, would he want to be still living with his parents? Would he want to be stuck? No, he would not. These people are emigrating because they are being forced to. How does the Minister of State think they feel when they hear there is a €1 billion underspend by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage? How does the Minister of State think their parents feel?

I have said before that there is no compassion deficit on the Government side of the House but there is most definitely a competence deficit. If the Government is not prepared to put in place policies to fix the housing crisis it has created, it should stand aside and make way for a Government that will.

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