Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

At that time, there were not proper facilities in place. The camp on Mount Street existed because of the failure of the State to provide appropriate accommodation and the camp at Crooksling has quickly become another failure of the State to provide appropriate accommodation. Tents are not appropriate accommodation and the Minister knows that. I know he wants to try to resolve it but we have not resolved it up to now and we have been looking at this situation for the last two years. Now people are returning to Mount Street with tents and more people arriving. We have created two humanitarian crises where there was one. It is typical of this Government. It multiplies the problems every time it fails to deal with the real problems. I wish to thank the local community for supporting people on Mount Street since December, as well as the medics and so on who have helped.

The bears strong similarities with how the State treats the record number of people in homelessness, who now number more than 14,000. This is a long-term crisis. As long-time housing activist Diarmuid Mac Dubhghlais noted:

This has sadly been a feature of Dublin homeless life for many years now, where we have seen Irish homeless moved on for purely cosmetic reasons, such as these celebrations, and notably during the visit of the US President last year. Out of sight and out of mind, but no long term solution.

Now we are looking at a crisis on the Ukrainian front with the 90-days State accommodation. We do not have a crystal ball as to what will happen there but I am sure it will not be good.

There is no long-term solution. That characterises almost everything this Government has done. We do not have the State capacity because this Government and successive governments preceding it represent wealth and profit. That means they will not tax wealth and profits at the rate needed for a functioning state. We are a privately rich country but publicly poor. This is a political decision made by Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, the Green Party and the Labour Party over the past five decades to tax wealth at a rate that has shrunk our State while the population grew. We need to increase our State's capacity if we are to have any chance of solving the issues we face or we will continue to have failed governments with no long-term plan which cannot fix the many crises we face here today. Moreover, we will see more divisive debates like this in this Chamber while we do not solve these issues, because it will either be a case of turning to the right and putting up borders or investing in our public services to facilitate everyone in this country and those coming here.

The Government now wants us to accept a new Taoiseach not elected by the people from a party that came third in the last election, selected by a handful of Fine Gael TDs and Senators. Micheál Martin and Eamon Ryan might be happy for a handful of Fine Gael TDs to decide who our next Taoiseach will be but much of the rest of the country thinks the electorate should decide who leads this country. I think the Government has lost its mandate and its Taoiseach and we need an immediate general election.

Asylum seekers and refugees coming into this country seeking international protection are not causing the crisis in housing and public services. They are being caught up, like everyone else, in a crisis in housing and public services caused by successive governments that are ideologically opposed to taxing wealth at the rate needed for the State to function because the Government represents the needs of profit and wealth and not of ordinary people. This is a failed Government. I do not blame the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman; it is a whole-of-government failure. It has lost its political mandate and it is playing political musical chairs while the country falls apart. This Government needs to go. We need an election now.

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