Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The step-by-step approach to addressing the housing crisis has left us with a deficit of 250,000 houses and record numbers of people who are homeless. Those numbers are growing every month. Approximately 100,000 households on housing lists have been waiting for ten, 15 or 20 years. There is a great deal of mystery. It is not us but the Housing Commission which says that a radical reset is necessary. Nobody is saying it can be done in a year. It is saying it could be done over ten years but that it has to start now and that we have to double the output. The Minister is absolutely right that we can add to this list water infrastructure, public transport and schools that need to be built. My point is that there is not enough in what the Minister is proposing to even begin the ten-year step towards addressing this problem. There is a way the Minister can do it and find the money without increasing inflation. It is not just us who are saying this. Oxfam estimates that a small wealth tax could raise €9 billion a year. We are more modest in our budget proposal of an additional €5 billion a year. This could fund it without overheating the economy and it would address the desperate housing situation we face.

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