Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

A lot of nonsense has been spoken about housing here today, particularly by some of the Government representatives. When canvassing in the Dublin area, it is an entirely different story. House after house, I meet people who tell me about their two sons in their late 20s or 30s who are still living with them and who have no hope of getting a place to live. They tell me about their daughter and her family, her partner and children, who are staying with them while trying to save because they cannot possibly save money while paying rent. Door after door, that is the story.

Looking at the facts of what has been happening in housing, we see that there have been virtually no houses built in the Dublin city area during the term of this Government. No affordable housing scheme houses at all have been built in the Dublin city area in the lifetime of this Government. What is being built in high-rise apartments. That is what is covering my constituency as regards new developments. The same applies right across the Dublin city area. Even if people want to settle down, have a family and so on, these apartments are, in the main, highly unsuitable. Even if people want to buy, they cannot because more than 90% of those apartments have been bought by vulture funds. They are mainly build-to-rent, lower standard, smaller shoeboxes with no storage and no usable outdoor space. When this Government talks about all the units it is building, it is essentially talking about high-rise apartments. When people in their late 20s and 30s want to buy a home, settle down and start families of their own, they are not looking for built-to-rent apartments; they are looking for a home.

Because no new homes are being built, there is very great pressure on the second-hand market. Most houses that become available on the second-hand market in Dublin city now go for approximately €100,000 more than the asking price. That is completely and utterly out of reach for most households, even where you have two people in very good jobs. Most people in public sector jobs, such as nurses, teachers, gardaí, cannot afford to buy a house in Dublin. That is the reason people are emigrating. Some people do not seem to understand that. We are also in serious trouble in trying to recruit essential public service staff.

They cannot afford to live in Dublin because there are no affordable houses in Dublin city and very few in County Dublin. That is the legacy left by this Government and there is no denying it. While there are new units everywhere, they are all high rise, build to rent and bought up by vulture funds. That is the reality of housing thanks to this Government. That is the reality of the kind of housing provided in the Dublin city area in the past four and a half years or longer.

People sometimes ask why the Social Governments did not enter government after the 2020 election or indeed the 2016 election. On both occasions, we had negotiations with Fine Gael on the possibility of entering government and, on both occasions, those negotiations broke down irreparably because Fine Gael continued to pursue failed housing policies. The proof of that is all around us ten years later. That is why people are emigrating. It is why young people feel they have been utterly let down by this Government and there is no hope for them in getting a decent start in their own country. These are people who did everything right. They got good leaving certificate results, went to college, got good jobs and still cannot set up a life for themselves in Dublin city. The implications of this for their parents are enormous in terms of pressures and overcrowding in the home and all of that. That is what we are finding. The Minister cannot be finding anything different on the doorsteps when he is canvassing in Dublin West because that is the story across Dublin. It is the appalling legacy the Government has left to young people in this country. It has failed them and they feel they have no hope in this country. They cannot foresee a future for themselves or have the same kinds of dreams and aspirations their parents had because the Government has prevented them from doing that. One of the key priorities and responsibilities of Government is to ensure an adequate supply of affordable housing for its citizens. The Government has utterly failed to do that.

The other issue relates to tax. There has been a lot of debate today about the taxation system. When one looks at the budgetary policies pursued, they are the same as last year. It is giveaway stuff to try to buy people's votes. People are not fooled by that, however. They have said in successive opinion polls that they want investment in services rather than money being frittered away and, certainly, rather than receiving tax cuts. What we have seen in this budget and the previous one is that people receive once-off payments. In the main, it is people on lower incomes and on welfare who receive the once-off payments. It is people on higher incomes who get the very generous tax cuts, which, of course, are permanent benefits as opposed to the benefits for people on lower incomes. This is what happening. While it is grand for people to get an extra few bob coming up to Christmas, and no one would turn that down, what happens after Christmas when the one-off payments are all gone and prices are still going up? That is why we in the Social Democrats have argued at every single budget that we should be spending any surplus or spare money on improving services rather than on regressive tax cuts. Unfortunately, this Government has taken a different approach.

While we have a significant problem with low incomes in this country, people, whether they are on low or middle incomes, cannot afford to access childcare or timely healthcare. This is all in addition to not being able to afford to pay a mortgage or rent. They cannot afford the kinds of transport costs associated with living in a city either. This all adds up and makes living difficult for people.

It is all very well for the Government to talk about implementing health reform but the reality is that, in many cases, even if someone qualifies for a medical card or a doctor visit card, it is still exceptionally difficult to see a doctor. That is due to the kinds of policies that have been pursued and the failure of the Government to introduce salaried GP posts, the implementation of which is overdue.

In that regard, I will talk about a project in Dublin city, namely, GP Care for All. The Minister is aware of it because I have raised it with him several times, as have others. Unfortunately, he has just brought down the shutters on it. He has not listened, which I am really surprised about, especially given that he is a GP and knows the difficulties with accessing GP care. I am sure he is familiar with the fact that, as the statistics from GP Care for All point out, in certain parts of Dublin it has been found that the medium age of death was 59 years versus a national figure in the early 80s. This is because people cannot access healthcare and the market-driven model pursued by this Government and previous Governments does not service areas of disadvantage particularly well. It is a reality, a rule in medicine, that the greater the need for healthcare in a particular area, the less likely it is that the area will get that healthcare. That is what happens with market-driven policies.

GP Care for All, which is a charity, recognised this issue of the absence of adequate healthcare availability in areas of severe disadvantage. In this regard, it set up a charitable practice in Summerhill in 2016. As the Minister should know, this is an area of high disadvantage. It set up that practice and has been successfully providing primary care services to the most disadvantaged people in this country. The charity was in touch with me and some of the other representatives in Dublin North-West about providing the same service in the Finglas west area, which is another area ignored and neglected by the market-driven approach of this Government. There has been no GP operating in the entire Finglas west and south area for approximately 20 years. The Minister should know the implications of that for the health status and life expectancy of the people living in the area. GP Care for All was ready to set up a practice similar to the one in Summerhill in the Finglas west area. We were all very supportive of the proposal, which would have made an enormous difference to the health status and quality of life of the residents living there. We then learned - just a matter of months ago - that effectively the plug had been pulled on this important promised development. It was pulled because there was a change to the taxation system. Until January, the HSE was happy to regard contract income by GPs as a group income for a charity like GP Care for All. That is how it operated in Summerhill. There was a change made, however, in the taxation of income in partnerships, which has effectively excluded GP Care for All. It means the proposal for Finglas will not go ahead and the Summerhill service is now jeopardised. The likelihood is it will have to wind up by the end of the year. The Minister, by a stroke of a pen, could have tackled this issue to ensure the service in Summerhill continued and that the people of Finglas west and south received the kind of healthcare service they need and deserve. I am appealing to the Minister again. He has been appealed to by various Members, some ministerial colleagues and even the Ceann Comhairle who is very supportive of this charity. Despite this, he has failed to act.

Dr. Austin O'Carroll, whom the Minister will know and who does extraordinary work, and his colleagues have been meeting in the Department of Health. That Department is very happy to see this kind of model supported; the difficulty is in Revenue and the Department of Finance.

This is probably one of the last times I will speak in the Dáil. We have been working towards getting proper healthcare for people in Finglas west and south for a very long time. I am making a very strong appeal to the Minister, as I am sure other representatives for that area will do, to take on this issue and to introduce the very minor change that is required in order for this charity to continue its really important work. I ask the Minister to give consideration to that appeal and to make that move. It is a very small change he could make that would make an enormous difference to the lives and the health of so many people in this country. I ask him to revisit this issue as a matter of urgency.

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