Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

It will be about three minutes and five minutes.

I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward this motion. We agree with a lot of what is in the motion, including better security for tenants, compulsory purchase of vacant and derelict buildings by local authorities, and bigger housing targets. The only thing is that it is a shame the Labour Party did not do any of that when it was in office. Deputy Kelly was Minister for housing from July 2014 to May 2016 and during those three calendar years, fewer than 500 social homes were built by local authorities in the entire State. The Labour Party sowed the seeds of the housing disaster when it was last in government, so why should anyone believe it will be any different if it manages to get back in again? All the good proposals in this motion are probably "what you do during an election" as Pat Rabbitte famously admitted. We all know that elections are around the corner.

We in People Before Profit have been campaigning for many of the measures in this motion for many years. We introduced Private Members' motions last year calling on the Government to extend, widen and then reintroduce a total ban on economic evictions. We have been fighting for real rent controls to limit rent to a maximum of 25% of a household's income, for councils to buy all suitable properties where a tenant is being evicted on grounds of sale and for the compulsory purchase of vacant and derelict housing to be used as social housing. Unfortunately, none of the protests we have organised have been successful up to this point. The housing crisis has become worse and worse every year this coalition of the uncaring has been in office. Why is this happening? Why, at a time of massive Government surpluses, full employment and economic growth, has the Government not been able to meet the most basic human need of a roof over people's heads?

Housing policy in this State does not serve the interests of ordinary people, such as workers, families, renters and people looking to buy their first homes. It has nothing to do with looking after communities or providing security for children. Instead, it is not really a crisis, but a permanent part of how capitalism works. It enriches landlords and landowners off the backs of renters and workers. It lines the already bulging pockets of builders, developers, banks and vulture funds.

One third of Fianna Fáil TDs are landlords, as are 27% of Fine Gael TDs. That obvious conflict of interest has not stopped them from voting to lift the eviction ban or from participating in a Government that has relentlessly driven up rents and housing prices. We will have crocodile tears from them, as we had from the Labour Party, but we should judge them by their actions, not their words. We need to kick the lot of them out at the next election. We need a real left Government that will take on the landlords, banks and developers, apply compulsory purchase orders to vacant property and land, including the vast amount of empty office space left behind after yet another commercial property crash, set up a State construction company to directly build the social and affordable housing we need and put the right to a home before the right of all these people and corporations to profit.

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