Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As my colleague has said, Fine Gael has been in power for 13 years. Since 2016 Fianna Fáil has supported Fine Gael through seven budgets. In that time one of the fundamental rights of citizens, the right to a home, has been eroded. The ability of young people to access secure and affordable accommodation has been chipped away. The aspirations of an entire generation to buy their own home, a home where they can build a life or raise a family, has been undercut. Under Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael a housing crisis of their own making has deteriorated into a social disaster.

The provision of housing is a basic and fundamental job of government. A government that fails in this duty is a government that is failing itself. Since this Government took office, homelessness has risen by 44%, with 3,699 children homeless last month. This hides the hidden homeless, who are forced to rely on the charity and goodwill of friends and family for a place to stay. We know that spiralling rents and house prices have surpassed the peak of the Celtic tiger and have left young people, families and even pensioners locked in an increasingly insecure and unaffordable rental market, with little hope of ever buying their own homes. All of the evidence of this points in one direction, which is towards a Government that is against home ownership and that is making home ownership more and more difficult. This housing crisis has now seeped into every corner of our society and economy, including my county of Donegal. It is a direct threat to the economy, with businesses now finding it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain staff.

The housing crisis can be solved, no doubt about it, but it cannot be solved by this Government or the parties that created and deepened the housing emergency. Only a change of government will deliver a government that will deliver a public housing programme fit for the scale of the challenge we face, introduce a ban on rent increases, introduce a refundable tax credit, reinstate the eviction ban and use emergency powers. This is how we will address the homeless crisis. This Government does not have the capacity to do it.

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