John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Social Democrats for bringing the motion before us. It once again places the spotlight on the chaos, hypocrisy and utter failure of the Government to address the crippling housing crisis within the State. The Government's approach clearly is not working. It exposes a chaotic approach to immigration that has failed communities and those coming to these shores seeking international protection. The crux of the situation is that there is no Government plan for immigration and providing accommodation. We need a rules-based system, one where the rules are actually implemented, that is fair, efficient and enforced and with proper communication with communities. The Government approach has been shambolic, to say the least, from the outset and continues to be so up to this day. There is no plan and no consistent approach. You are not working with local communities. You are not bringing them with you.

Some 1,300 international protection applicants were living in tents last weekend, until they were scooped off the streets of the city centre and deposited in a field of mud on the side of the Dublin Mountains in what can only be described as a cynical PR exercise by the Government to clear the streets ahead of St. Patrick's Day. A further 13,000-plus people are homeless across the State. In this day and age, nobody in this State should be homeless. The conditions that international protection applicants were forced to live in were absolutely inhumane. Unfortunately, those shipped out to the site of the former nursing home at Crooksling are experiencing similar levels of misery, to the point that a growing number believe they are better off back on the streets of the city centre. What we have seen from the Government has been an absolute lack of coherence. They bounce from crisis to crisis, failing to address any of the core issues underpinning the crisis, leading to a system that takes years to process applications with zero enforcement at the end of the day. If a decision is made to refuse an application, it is simply not being enforced at the end.

My party's policies on housing are a matter of record and represent a pathway out of the current crisis for the thousands who have been impacted by the failure of successive Governments. We have consistently and vigorously argued the need for a fair, efficient and enforced immigration system with proper engagement with host communities dealing with core issues of capacity and local services that are lacking in communities right across the State. Ultimately, if an application has failed, it would be enforced in a timely manner, returning people safely to their country of origin. We also need to speed up the processing of international protection applications. It is completely unacceptable that it is taking years upon years in some cases to process them. This is overwhelming an already stretched system, creating huge bottlenecks in the provision of accommodation, leading to a shambolic approach by the Government to the issue of immigration.

In my own constituency of Wicklow, the Department is not only failing to communicate with the community there but is also failing to communicate with local representatives. The Government appears to be actively deceiving them regarding its true intentions. For years, the community in Newtown has campaigned for a former local HSE premises at River Lodge House, Trudder, to be transferred to the community. We have heard consistently from the Department that the premises are not fit for purpose or for human use.

The Minister and Department continue to this day to insist that no decision has been taken regarding the use of the site by IPAS. The reality is that the opposite appears to be the case. There is a clear attempt to hoodwink the community and public representatives on the issue. The reality is that locals can see bulldozers on the site as we speak, stripping back topsoil and putting down hard-core stone along with prefabs. Is it any wonder that communities are up in arms?

The Government's actions are fostering local anger and protest. Over the next couple of weeks, the Green Party will facilitate a charade in terms of Fine Gael putting forward its leader and new Taoiseach. The reality is that we need a general election in order that people can have a say on the crisis in housing and the health service and the shambolic and chaotic handling of the whole issue of immigration. We need a general election and the Minister needs to not facilitate the anointment of a new Fine Gael Taoiseach. He needs to ensure there is a general election so that the people can adjudicate on his failure and that of the Government on all of these issues.

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