Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach was bragging there about the Government's achievement in housing. Meanwhile, a new report published by Morgan McKinley Ireland shows that Ireland faces a brain drain across the economy. Workers in many professions are emigrating because of a housing crisis and sky-high living costs. Accountants are heading off to Australia and Canada and the construction sector has also been badly hit as the lack of availability in housing has seen workers packing their bags for the United States and Canada. The inability to find a home where they can build a life is driving young people abroad; the very workers with the education, skill, talent and energy we need to build and drive our society and economy. This brain drain is a direct result of the Government's disastrous housing policy. This report might serve as a wake-up call to the Taoiseach. Will the Taoiseach study the report and accept that we need a massive ramping up, as the Deputy has suggested, of State-led delivery of affordable homes to buy and rent?

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