Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank my colleague Deputy Ó Broin for bringing the motion to the House. To state the Government's housing policies are a disaster is a big understatement. There are record house prices throughout the State, home ownership is at its lowest rate in 50 years and generations are being denied any hope of ever having a home of their own. Instead, the red carpet is rolled out again and again for vultures to waltz in and buying up properties wholesale, charging eye-watering rents and not even paying tax on their rental income.

Remember Belcamp Manor? Occu is now inviting applicants for its waiting list to rent these properties. Imagine a waiting list to rent properties at the eye-watering cost of €3,175 per month. Let this sink in. This is for family homes. This is absolutely disgraceful. Before coming to the Chamber I looked at daft.ie and researched new homes in my county of Kildare. There are a few estates with the lowest starting price of €360,000. I sat down and did my sums. An ordinary working couple would have to be earning a minimum of €90,000 between them to even come within sniffing distance of a mortgage for this amount, not to mention they are paying sky-high rents into the bargain.

As for social housing, the more than 6,000 households on Kildare's housing list must endure a wait of a minimum of at least eight years to be housed, while struggling to find suitable affordable rental accommodation in a county with approximately 71 properties available to rent today. There are 6,000 people on that list and we have 71 properties. Do the maths. Nobody will get housed.

Where are the 50,000 affordable houses promised by the Tánaiste, Deputy Micheál Martin, when he was going into government? They have not come to Kildare and I have not seen them anywhere else. What are our nurses, doctors, gardaí and teachers going to do when they cannot find somewhere to live so they can go to work? Bear in mind we have a lack of gardaí in Kildare. They have no houses to live in and they travel for miles to get there. What will the Government do about this? Does it expect them to come out with tents from O'Connell Street?

I am my party's spokesperson for older people. Older people come to my office telling me they cannot find anywhere to rent or they are struggling with a mortgage. Imagine older people are coming to us because they are struggling with a mortgage. It was never heard tell of before. The Government needs to put its rhetoric into action and change its housing policies to ones that provide urgently needed housing and double the number of affordable homes to buy and rent. We need a Government that can and will do what is necessary to fix the housing disaster and it is a disaster. We need a Government that will radically reset housing policy and tackle the stranglehold of vulture funds and other vested interests on the housing and rental markets. We need Sinn Féin in government and the Government needs to go.

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