Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

On all the evidence, the Government is indifferent to the suffering of people in this housing disaster. It is indifferent to the suffering and panic of people who are facing eviction and have nowhere to go. It is indifferent to the suffering caused by a series of increases in their mortgage repayments leaving them completely broke and broken, many for the first time in the lifetime of their home loan. The Government's supporters, the usual free marketeers, do not have to worry from the security of their plush homes, handy inheritances and well-pensioned jobs.

A heck of a lot of people in north Kildare are contacting me to tell me they are squeezed dry; rate rise after rate rise. They are shocked to a man and woman, and they are frightened. There are people who would have previously been comfortable being able to afford a takeaway on a Friday night or a holiday during the summer and weekends away with no problems funding trips or hobbies for their kids, living the lives that ordinary working people really should be expected to be able to live. Now, suddenly, at the end of the month, they have nothing. It is a noticeable number of people.

I met with a man yesterday who is having trouble because of his mortgage repayments. He told me he had never contacted Sinn Féin before but now realises that we are the only party listening to people and that understands the fear he is experiencing. Suddenly, a doctor's visit or even a note home from school about a trip or outing is a major financial problem. There is a coarseness and an ignorance, a sense of a dog-eat-dog mentality entering into financial and fiscal politics and society, and the people in this situation are really suffering. Our mortgage interest relief proposal will support people when they are suffering in this deep crisis of the cost of living. People are battered by a series of rate hikes in their mortgage for their ordinary house. The Minister might call that their primary dwelling. They call it their home. It means the world to them because it is the home for them and their children. It is where they have their lives as a family and where they can close the doors and feel safe.

Despite the #bekind, there is zero kindness in this Government to people who are struggling with housing, be it evictions or the increasing mortgage payments. There is zero kindness and zero concern. This Government's indifference should be a red flag to the people who voted for it. Fianna Fáil likes to pretend it is the party of homeownership. Do not make me laugh.

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