Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In the first exchange of this Dáil session, a Minister told us the Government's housing policies were working. She said so never minding that rent costs are out of control or that house prices have hit record levels and are beyond the reach of the vast majority of workers and families, and never minding that Government is missing every one of its social and affordable housing targets, targets that were too low to begin with. The Minister, Deputy Humphreys, went further than just repeating the absurdity that the Government's housing plan is working when it is clearly not; she went on to attack Sinn Féin for having the audacity to even suggest that homes should be affordable and there should be no surprise there.

When Fine Gael came into government in 2011, it had a chance to resolve housing for a generation or more. It could have built and bought houses for a fraction of today's cost and stimulated the economy when it badly needed it. It could have prevented the forced emigration of thousands of our young people, who instead ended up on building sites in Sydney, Toronto and every other corner of the world.

Fine Gael chose not to because it wanted house prices to rise in order to prioritise the profits of the banks. Fine Gael never wanted homes to be affordable, not then and clearly not now. It was Fine Gael which, remember, rolled out the red carpet for the vulture funds in the first place. It ensured that these funds would pay no capital gains tax and not a red cent on their obscene rental incomes. Then, when the inevitable housing crisis emerged, Fine Gael continued to prioritise inflating house prices, rather than providing homes for those who needed them. That is why a fund can swoop in and purchase 85%, 46 out of 55 homes, in a Dublin housing development. That is why that fund can put those homes up for rent, charging upwards of €3,000 per month.

That is why we need change. We need a different Government that will deliver affordable homes and that will be unapologetic in saying that we want affordable homes for those who need them. We need a Government that will end the steady stream of our young people being forced to leave Ireland because they cannot find a place they can afford in their country. It is time to prioritise people, namely Irish workers and families, ahead of foreign vulture funds.

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