Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I urge the Government not to do it a second time around. We have called on the Government to increase the funding for domestic violence refuges. We have about a third of the refuge space that is required for women and children fleeing domestic violence and coercive control. We have no got answer from the Government on that as well. Crucially, we have called for the reintroduction of the ban on no-fault evictions. We know what the Government's position is on that because it voted down our legislation in December.

We tabled a series of propositions so we could have a discussion, and neither the Minister of State nor the Minister addressed any of them. With respect to the Government's so-called progress, here is the problem. Yes, it is true that more new-build social homes were delivered the year before last than anytime since 1975.

Since then, our population has doubled, and in the 1970s, we had a surplus of social housing in our large local authorities. The level of need for social housing today is more than double what it was in the 1970s, so if we want to make an intelligent comparison, we would need to double the output beyond what the Government it has delivered.

With respect to affordable housing, in 2020, I published a very detailed policy document setting out exactly how we would deliver large volumes of affordable homes, something the Government is not doing. In my constituency, in the case of one of the Government's affordable homes funded through the affordable housing fund, the full cost to the buyer is €425,000. In what world is that affordable?

We have set out our alternatives. The Government has ignored them and misrepresents them. It will not even talk about the issue under debate tonight. Its head is in the sand, it is making this problem worse, and the sooner we get rid of its parties from government, the better, not just for us but for those people whom the Government's housing policies are failing year after year. Shame on the Minister of State for again defending the indefensible. I commend the motion to the House.

See this speech in context