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

One of the major criticisms in the Housing Commission's damning report relates to Government waste of money. The report states: "Ireland has, by comparison with our European partners, one of the highest levels of public expenditure for housing, yet one of the poorest outcomes." Why is that the case? It is because the Government decided to pass the State's responsibility for housing people to private landlords. Last week, I referred to the €3 billion the Government is forking over to wealthy property funds to lease homes that neither the State nor the tenants will ever own. In one case, the Government is coughing up close to €1 million leasing one property in Dublin that goes back to the fund after 25 years. That is incredible incompetence. However, there is even worse.

Fine Gael came to office in 2011. Since then it has put nearly €10 billion of public money into the pockets of private landlords. It has done this through mechanisms such as the housing assistance payment, HAP, the rental accommodation scheme, RAS, rent allowance and long-term leasing. That money could and should have been used to build tens of thousands of permanent homes for ordinary people. Instead, the Government paid out €10 billion to keep workers and families in the private rental sector with very little housing security. Housing supports are necessary, but they must be short-term and temporary and not result in not a never-ending bill for the taxpayer. The Government has turned what is supposed to be a temporary short-term support into indefinite, uncertain and insecure situations for many people.

The Taoiseach should know as well as I do what life is like for people on HAP. They talk about their rip-off rent leaving them with very little to pay other bills. They worry about being forced to move out with nowhere to go. The insecurity of their housing situation is always on their minds. It is stress, worry and constant uncertainty over the future. These workers and families should have the security of a permanent home. Of course, the Government does not see its housing failures. Families forced to go without permanent homes see it. A generation locked out of affordable housing sees it and young people paying extortionate rents see it because they live with the consequences of the Government's housing decisions every single day and they have had enough. They have had enough of the Government's rhetoric; they want delivery of and real change in the area of housing.

Tá Fine Gael agus Fianna Fáil ag cur beagnach €10 billiún d'airgead poiblí i bpócaí tiarnaí talún príobháideacha. Ba cheart an t-airgead sin a úsáid i gcomhair tithe ar phraghas réasúnta, rud atá ag teastáil ó dhaoine.

The Housing Commission has called for rental subsidies to be reformed to make them short-term temporary supports. It has called for a massive ramping up of the delivery of social and affordable housing because workers and families need permanent roofs over their heads. Putting €10 billion into the pockets of private landlords does not get the job done, and that is the bottom line. The Government's approach to housing has failed. It is simply recycling the same policies that got us into this mess in the first place. How can the Taoiseach stand over spending €10 billion to keep tenants in insecure housing when that money could have been used to build tens of thousands of homes for workers and families?

See this speech in context