Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Táim ag díriú isteach ar chathair na Gaillimhe agus ar Chontae na Gaillimhe agus an ghéarchéim thithíochta atá ann, in ainneoin gur bunaíodh tascfhórsa in 2019. In ainneoin sin, níl aon tuarascáil chríochnúil againn fós ó thaobh anailíse de agus tá an ghéarchéim thithíochta ag éirí i bhfad níos measa. I ndáiríre, cuireann sé an spotsolas ar pholasaí an Rialtais. Tá teipthe aige go huile agus go hiomlán ó thaobh tithíocht a sholáthar.

I am going back to Galway city and county in respect of the housing crisis. It is a microcosm of what is happening in the country and brings into acute focus the utter failure of housing policy year after year and Government after Government. In 2019, a task force was set up in Galway city and county, prior to Covid and the war in Ukraine, because there was a crisis. Galway City Council and the county had utterly failed to build one single public house from 2009 onwards in Galway city. That was directly related to Government policy. I say this in the context of our former city manager telling us in February of this year, five years after the task force, that Galway City Council will not be able to meet its social housing needs. I say this in light of the European Commission telling us the shortage of social housing has created long waiting lists, resulted in over-reliance in short-term supplement solutions and contributed to a steep increase in homelessness.

We have 12,691 people homeless. That is a 752.41% increase since 2012. Some 279 of them are in Galway city and county. I raise this because, foolishly, I put a little faith in the task force that was set up. It has, however, simply become another layer of the establishment and another layer of administration that has proceeded for five years to get more and more presentations. Today, I got the report for 2022, last year, ten months later. It proceeds to tell me that Galway city built very few houses, but even the ones that were built are at odds with the figures from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. I will go by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, which tells us that at the end of 2022, we had built 26 houses in total by direct build in Galway city. In the county, we had built, in total, 150.

Other figures are given in the report from the task force, which again brings into acute focus the messing around and complete obfuscation in relation to figures. When we talk about the provision of social housing, we include just about everything under that umbrella, from long-term leasing to other arrangements. What I am asking the Taoiseach is to take a hands-on approach in relation to Galway city and county where the housing crisis is worse than in Dublin. We have pockets of land with no overall master plan. All of the segments - Ceannt Station, the docks, Dyke Road and Sandy Road - are all working separately and without a plan for the common good.

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