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

The average rent in Cork is over €1,700. How could any ordinary family pay that type of money? A lady who came to my clinic yesterday is paying the council rent but is also paying €220 per month on top of her housing assistance payment. She cannot survive. She has been on to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. Does the Minister know what I had to do for her yesterday? As she has a child, I had to contact Caitríona Twomey of Penny Dinners to get her nappies and a hamper. The lady and her child, who is two and a half years old, could become homeless if the rent is not paid. That is the only choice the lady has because of the Government. A grandmother who came to me is in emergency accommodation. She said that, at this hour of her life, she is ashamed to be in emergency accommodation because she cannot access social housing. That is on the Minister's watch.

The Minister referred to all the figures a while ago. I will give him a couple of figures that came out today. Today we saw that only 15% of the homes to be delivered in 2033 were delivered in quarter one. That means 85% will have to be delivered in the other quarters. The Minister spoke about planning permissions. I will tell him about planning permissions in Cork: there are 50 units fewer compared to last year. These are the figures out today.

I will give the Minister another figure. The target for social housing builds in Cork between 2022 and 2026 is 3,732, with 202 long-term leases. This is just fewer than 4,000 builds. There are 1,000-plus people going onto the housing list in Cork every year. Therefore, if the council builds everything the Minister wants it to build, there will still be 10,000 people on the list, 10,000 being the number on the list now. They might be different people but there will still be 10,000. The Minister has accused my party colleague, the spokesperson on housing, Deputy Ó Broin, of outrageous behaviour. The Minister's outlining of all his figures here along with the rest of the Government is outrageous behaviour. These are the facts and figures: we now have the highest numbers on housing lists, the highest house prices, the highest rents, the highest number in homelessness and 3699 children in emergency accommodation. When will the Minister admit that he has failed, and when will he admit that this policy is gone?

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