Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The one thing that is absolutely clear is that the Government's failure to rise to the housing emergency is having real and devastating consequences for people's lives. The figures published reflect the fact that the Government missed its target on affordable housing by almost 60%. If the Taoiseach counts that as an achievement, or if he regards that as an acceptable level of performance, then God help us all. That is all I can say. I have given four examples. I mentioned Aoife Ní Chéileachair and told the Taoiseach about the mother in Cork, the family in Wicklow and the young woman in Dublin. We could go on and on. Despite the Taoiseach's glib response to me, the facts are that in each of these cases, these people have nowhere to go. The Government has not provided the safety net or the emergency mitigation they require. Those are the facts. The Taoiseach is clearly in a state of denial and it is a very dangerous type of denial. He seems to fail to grasp what is actually happening out there in the real world.

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