Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We has a changeover in respect of that. Listening to the Minister one would think we have no crisis in Ireland in our housing sector. While there is drama going on at RTÉ in respect of many other things, I switched over to Euronews in the past couple of days. There was a report on that channel, which is broadcast across every country in Europe, which went under the headline "Ireland's housing crisis: Millennials, a generation sacrificed". During the report, it was stated:

In recent years Ireland has a continued trend of emigration, that young graduates and young millennials are leaving the Emerald Isle for greener pastures. But this time they are leaving on account of a housing crisis exacerbated by inflation, which is destroying their future prospects.

That is the message that is being beamed out across every country in Europe regarding the Minister's housing policy. The Minister has been in power and propping up a Government for the past, probably seven or eight years at this stage. Propping up the exact same policies that he is now implementing. Those policies are failing. They are failing when we look at the way rents are increasing. They are increasing in County Louth by 21%, in County Longford there is a 54% increase. In the area in County Sligo where I live, rents have gone up by 28%. They have increased by 33% in County Leitrim. The Minister tells us there is no crisis, there is no problem, and that because we pointing to the problem that we are the problem. That the opposition is the issue here. The opposition is not the issue here, the opposition are the ones telling the Minister that he needs to get something done about the people across the length and breadth of this country who cannot afford to rent or buy anywhere to live.

We have to get to grips with this situation. The Minister needs to build houses, he needs to provide policies that will provide the affordable rental accommodation which so many people across the country need. Many of our Deputies, including me, were over with the students' union across the road. One of the issues that is top of their agenda is student accommodation. There is also a crisis in that regard across the entire country. If we do not get to grips with this, we will see thousands and thousands more Irish people leave the country because they cannot afford to live here. In the clip on Euronews, there was a man from Dublin who was living here because he said it was the only place he could afford to have a job and a place to live. I remember many years ago the writer Joseph O'Connor said that he moved to London in the 1980s because it was the only place he could find where he could have a job and a private life. Now, people in Ireland cannot have a job, a private life or a home because they cannot afford to live here. We need to change that and the only way that will be changed is if the Minister steps aside and his Government gets out of office because they are simply a failure.

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