Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Tá an Rialtas seo in oifig anois le breis agus trí bliana. Tá plean tithíochta an Aire seo i bhfeidhm anois le dhá bhliain agus tá a fhios ag madraí an bhaile go bhfuil teipthe ar an bplean sin. Tá na spriocanna tithíochta ró-íseal agus tá an plean agus an Rialtas seo ag ligean síos ár muintir. Tá a fhios ag Sinn Féin gur an rud atá de dhíth ná 20,000 teach poiblí a chur ar fáil an bhliain seo chugainn agus freagra a chur ar fáil do riachtanais tithíochta ár muintir. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, has been in office for three years and everybody knows his housing targets are far too low. It is universally acknowledged at this stage that the targets do not reflect actual housing need across the State but, even still, he misses his affordable housing targets every year.

House prices are at record highs and continue to rise. Rents continue to spiral out of control, with no end in sight for struggling renters. What has been the response of the Minister? In his first full year as Minister, not a single affordable home to rent or purchase was delivered under his tenure. In his second year as Minister, he delivered only 75 affordable homes to rent and not a single affordable home was delivered to purchase in that year. In his third year as Minister, he promised 4,000 affordable homes but delivered just a quarter of his target. What about this year? This year, he promised 5,500 affordable homes. He is supposed to report the progress on affordable home delivery every quarter but there was no update in quarter 1 or quarter 2. What is the Minister hiding? Why will he not tell the public what is being achieved under these missed targets? Why will he not tell the House today how many affordable homes to rent or buy have been delivered? The problem is that his targets are not being delivered.

As he knows only too well, people in his constituency are crying out for affordable housing. A recent article published on thejournal.ie highlighted the difficulties faced by workers and families. Homes in Dun Emer housing scheme in Lusk were to be fully completed in October last year but some residents are being told it will be October this year, 12 months later, before they will be delivered. In the words of one of the Minister's constituents:

I wish I never applied for the scheme. I thought we were the luckiest people ever to get this. ... But it has caused so much stress and anxiety and everything is just constant worry.

Even planned developments are not being delivered on time, yet the Minister is more than happy to show up for photograph after photograph and soundbite after soundbite, while all around us, everybody knows his plan is a shambles. It is not working. It is not delivering and he, as a Minister, is failing.

We in Sinn Féin have been clear. We know what is needed. We need to deliver at least 20,000 public homes next year. At least 8,000 of those should be genuinely affordable homes to rent or buy. What have we seen under Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael? Rates of home ownership have fallen. A generation of people who desperately want to move on to the next stage of their lives have been locked out of owning their own homes. The Minister is shaking his head. I spent August in Australia. I met with people whom he forced onto those planes. A common thread through all of them, whether they were in Sydney, Canberra or elsewhere in Australia, is that it was the failure in housing that drove them to board a plane at Dublin Airport.

The Minister should, please, recognise the fact that he is failing and his plan is failing. He has a simple choice. The budget provides him that choice. He can either stick with his current plan, which is clearly failing, or take Sinn Féin's advice to dramatically increase investment in public housing and deliver genuinely affordable homes to rent and buy that working people rightly deserve and need. Will he heed this advice? Will he change course and acknowledge his plan is failing?

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