Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Social Democrats and Deputy O'Callaghan for bringing forward the motion. Will the Government ever take ownership, and put its hands up and admit that it is wrong? We all make mistakes. It takes a bigger person to say that they have made a mistake and their housing policy is wrong, and that we should get together, take on the Opposition's constructive support and ideas and work together.

This is an emergency. We saw what happened during the Covid-19 crisis when everyone had to pull together for the overall good. Those on the Government benches talk about home ownership. It is a disgrace. Do they have any respect for ordinary people who are looking to the Minister of State and Government for help and support?

We have the highest house prices, rents and homeless figures and lowest rate of home ownership in history of the State. Does the Minister of State dispute any of those figures? It is a straightforward question. I am dealing with people every day and this is the reality on the ground.

Minister after Minister, and the Tánaiste and Taoiseach, come in here to attack the Opposition for telling the truth. We are now in a housing emergency and someone have to come up with a solution. Going round the edges is not helping. There are 166,000 vacant houses in the country. That would be a good place to start. The Government talks about-----

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