Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The point is that the Housing Commission report is damning. It is not neutral in its assessment of the Government's performance; it is damning and states very clearly the Government's failures. An important failing it identifies is the fact that the Government has turned what should be a temporary, short-term support into a permanent feature in the lives of many people. The Taoiseach did not dispute my figure; it is €10 billion since 2011. That is a lot of public money. That is a lot of potential bricks and mortar. That is a lot of permanent homes that ought to have been built. That is the point here. I will put the question again. How can the Taoiseach stand over that?

That is a clear measure of the Government's failure.

People who come to anyone's office who are on or who are seeking HAP are never filled with joy at that prospect. People on HAP are, in the main, pretty miserable and universally frantic with worry with regard to these matters. As it happens, only the other evening, I was talking to one young mother who is on HAP. She has two small, beautiful children. Her rent is €2,500 and she does not have a decent night's sleep. That is what her housing situation is. The Government has spent €10 billion keeping people in that situation that ought to have been spent on building affordable and social homes, but of course that is not the Fine Gael way.

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