Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

People in Mayo will be really worried when they hear that the Minister of State and the Government are not finished yet, honest to God, because what he read out bears no relation to what I and my staff deal with every day in Mayo. The average price of a home in Mayo has increased by €10,000 since last year. People are desperately trying to save enough money to buy a secure home in a cost-of-living crisis, but they are watching as the goalposts move further and further away. At the same time, they are being squeezed by the rising cost of rent. The average rent for a three-bedroom house in Mayo has increased by 45% since the Government took office three years ago. For others, it is a struggle to even find somewhere to rent. Today there are only 18 properties for rent in the whole of County Mayo, and most of them are out of reach and unaffordable for too many people.

This is the legacy of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. We cannot let it become normal. Lives are being destroyed and people are living in fear. When we look at the homeless figures, there are 3,699 children and 12,441 adults those do not even show the real extent of the problem because we do not even have any more emergency accommodation in Mayo. The Government lifted the ban and it has not even increased emergency homeless accommodation by one iota. That is why there are people living in cars. I have a case of a single man who is homeless and living in his car. He is unlikely to be housed by the local authority for a very long time and has no emergency accommodation. I am dealing with another case involving a single parent and their three children who are being evicted. They have been unable to access emergency accommodation, so they will be given bed and breakfast accommodation vouchers for Castlebar. It is not right what is happening to people in my county - the county of Michael Davitt. It is absolutely deplorable. Among all that there are people who have to find rental places because they are impacted by pyrite and their houses are falling down so they have to move out.

Millions are being announced but even the housing aid for older people has no money. There is no money in the local authority. There is nothing for them. There are people with their roofs leaking and elderly people who are in poor health, but there is no money. Will the Minister of State please look and see what is going on?

See this speech in context