Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I met a member of the Defence Forces in my constituency office this week. He has two children with additional needs and his wife is their full-time carer. He has been in the Defence Forces for nearly 20 years. He is renting privately and is one of the fortunate ones in that his landlord has not increased the rent, not yet anyway. However, he understands the landlord will now sell the property he calls home. He is worried sick because he has no security for his family and no guarantee of a roof over his head. He earns too much to get a place on the social housing list and does not have the 10% deposit to qualify for the local authority home loan. He tried the help-to-buy scheme but it only offered him €7,000. Average house prices in County Galway are up again this year, with the average home costing €269,000. He has no way to come up with €26,000.

On the same day, I was contacted by someone renting privately in Ballinasloe. Again, this person's landlord is selling up and has given this individual a notice to quit. This is a consistent issue across counties Roscommon and Galway. As is the case every time I raise the issue of rents in Ballinasloe, there is not one single property to rent privately in Galway's county town. Galway County Council relies on homeless accommodation in Galway city, which is an hour away, is always full, and almost always running a waiting list. Where do we tell these people and young families to go? Today's Daft report shows rents rising again and again. The average monthly rent in counties Roscommon and Galway is more than €1,000.

My generation do not want to have to spend so much of their hard-earned wages on rent. My generation cannot afford to pay extortionate rents and save for a deposit. My generation certainly now feels that owning a home is not an option any more. My generation, as we did at the time we finished college in the early 2010s, are emigrating once again. These people want to live where they can afford to rent and put a roof over their head, and not just work to pay bills, insurance and rent. That life should be here for them in Ireland but it is not. That is partly due to the failing housing policy of this Government. If it were working, we would not have rising rents, rising house prices and rising homelessness.

See this speech in context