David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There are a number of areas in housing where the Minister has delivered, which should be recognised on the floor of the Dáil. First is rising rents - well done. Every year, month on month, year on year, rents have increased. In my own constituency of Waterford, rents have increased 6.5% on last year. That was up on the year before and the year before that. Well done. You delivered that as did your colleagues in Waterford, Deputies Mary Butler and Marc Ó Cathasaigh, and let us not forget Senator John Cummins for his role in those rising rents as well. The Minister has also delivered rising house prices - well done. Each and every month and year, house prices have gone up. He has also delivered record homelessness. Again, well done. The Minister deserves all the credit for that. That is his record as Minister for housing: rising rents, rising house prices, and rising homelessness. All the while, people who want to own their own home cannot afford to buy homes. The Government has not even reached its own very low targets for affordable homes. Examples have been given of affordable homes at more than €500,000. You would wonder what planet the Minister and the Government representatives are on.

It was leaked today that the Housing Commission has called for a radical reset of housing policy. That is needed, but the big reset we need is the Minister's party out of local councils up and down the State. The big reset we need is Government representatives out of the European Parliament. The big reset we need is the Minister's party and the Minister out of government in this State. We need a Government that will deliver the most ambitious and biggest public, social and affordable housing programme the State has ever seen. That is what the people need. We need to deliver affordable homes at an unprecedented scale, by which I mean affordable homes at under €300,000 and at €250,000 where that can be done. That is the objective for anybody who understands what affordable homes need to be. We need to stop the Minister's friends, the vulture funds, swooping in and buying homes that should go to families. The Minister rolls out the red carpet for the vulture funds, as we know. We have to support struggling homeowners in respect of mortgage relief and we have to speed up the construction of homes. Time and again, Deputy Eoin Ó Broin has set out all the solutions, ideas and things that need to be delivered to ensure we have the biggest housing programme in the history of the State. The Minister will go down as one of the worst housing Ministers in the history of the State. He will be remembered for all of those people who are living with their parents in box rooms, dreaming of being able to own their own home but not being able to do so. Every target he ever set he has missed. By God, what a failure that is.

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