Chris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Seven years ago, the Ringsend, Irishtown, Pearse Street and Sandymount communities did a deal with the Government for the delivery of social and affordable houses on a particular site. Families and individuals in the inner city are in desperate need of housing, both social and affordable. Inner city communities have been neglected for decades. They are expected to live in conditions that are completely unacceptable. If the flats were privately owned, there would be an absolute outcry.

I was contacted by a family very recently. The mother and father are both working and paying big rent to the council each week to live in a council-owned flat. They have two girls and a boy in their mid-20s. There are five adults in a two-bedroom flat. They are a family who are steeped in the local community. The kids are involved in football and dance in the local community youth club. You could not ask for a better family. They live in a small two-bedroom flat and the ceiling is literally falling in. They have been waiting more than 15 years on the housing list for a home with a third room.

Of course, this is not uncommon because prices are making owning your own home incredibly difficult. There are so many families like this. This family feels abandoned by this Government. Ringsend and Pearse Street families have been abandoned by this Government. They do not have faith that these homes will actually be delivered as agreed on the Irish Glass Bottle site. When is the deal going to be done? When are the contracts going to be signed to deliver the social and affordable homes on that site? It is being said that one-bedroom apartments will come in at €400,000. It is absolutely bonkers to expect anybody to be able to pay €400,000.

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