Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas freisin leis na Social Democrats as an Private Members' motion seo.

Housing and affordability are not mutually exclusive. It is not a sign of an advanced society or economy if people cannot afford a home. It is not a sign of success or progress if hard work and a good job are no longer enough for a person to be able to afford to rent or buy a home of their own. Rather, it is a social failure. It is an epic social failure and it is exactly what this Government has engineered and inflicted on our society. This Government has done it without mercy and is completely indifferent to the suffering, fear and humiliation of people facing eviction. It is indifferent to men and women whose nerves are shot because their adult children and grandchildren are on top of them as they cannot afford to rent elsewhere. These are working, ambitious people and Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have engineered things such that there is nowhere for them to go.

The Minister was laughing earlier but my secretary was crying in her office today in north Kildare because of the cases of two men in their late 60s who, although they have been working since they were teenagers, are both now living in their cars. Both have serious health problems, including serious vascular issues. Both are at the end of their tether but the housing Minister of the Government is laughing and thinks this is a laughing matter. I am talking about two separate cases. These men do not know each other.

I am also dealing with the case of a woman with a child with a chronic illness. That woman was advised by a housing body to give in her notice on her HAP rental because her home was to be ready last July. She is now homeless because the apartment she was due to go into, in Naas, has been subject to a legal issue. Since the mother has been nominated for accommodation, she cannot avail of homelessness services. This is where the red tape comes in. Kildare County Council wanted to give up her nomination so she can access homeless accommodation.

Deputy Cian O'Callaghan was talking about the rigmarole and outsourcing of the Government. Why are we even dealing with housing bodies? We should be dealing with the council. Kildare County Council has actually run out of homeless accommodation in Kildare. Its staff cannot pick up the phones because the Minister is not talking to the workers and getting this industrial thing sorted out. It is just one thing after another with the Government. Its housing policy is dismantling people, families and what it means to be a citizen in a democratic republic. It is dismantling the lives of people of every generation. From babies to those in old age, from cradle to grave, nobody is safe from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Greens in this housing crisis. People who depend solely on their salaries from month to month cannot afford the high rents in north Kildare. I have cases of men and women in their 60s who are trying to rent, and the State pension will go nowhere near towards meeting their accommodation needs. People need care and, by God, they need change.

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