Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Apologies, I was not aware. That is no problem, I call Deputy Hearne.

4 o’clock

Comhghairdeas, a Cheann Comhairle, agus go raibh maith agat. I am delighted to speak today. Is onóir é inniu labhairt mar ghuth do mhuintir Dublin North-West agus ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil leo. I also want to thank my family, the Social Democrats and Róisín Shortall for their support.

As we are discussing who will be the next Taoiseach, the Social Democrats would like us to look at and go back to the programme of the First Dáil in 1919, which stated:

It shall be the first duty of the Government of the Republic to make provision ... that no child shall suffer hunger or cold from lack of food, clothing, or shelter...

Yet today, as we heard at the doors during the election, in my own constituency of Dublin North-West and across this country there are 230,000 children growing up in poverty in families that cannot afford to heat their homes, pay for social activities or keep food on the table or a roof over their heads. One of the basic needs of a child's well-being is a secure home yet this Christmas, shamefully, there will be 4,645 children and their families, and possibly more, in emergency accommodation, not in a home.

Today in this country, despite unprecedented wealth, there are thousands waiting to access vital assessment and intervention services for their children with additional needs and, of course, we have a generation locked out of home ownership. Record house prices and record rents have resulted in 500,000 adults stuck living in their childhood bedrooms, while others are stuck renting in insecure and unaffordable housing. Despite the resources and despite the wealth, they see no future in this country - no way to get a home of their own or start independent adult lives. Many are emigrating because of the housing failure.

This housing emergency is the defining issue of our time. We need to see an urgent response in scale and effort that will deliver genuinely affordable housing. We need to stop treating housing as an investment asset for the vulture funds and corporate landlords. We need to treat housing as a home and as a human right. The housing disaster can be solved. We in the Social Democrats have put forward policies that can achieve this. We can look to our past, which shows that we can build social and affordable housing at a major scale. We can end homelessness. These social crises are not inevitable. They result from political choices about the type of economic and social policies that we have. Successive governments have chosen to put private and market interests ahead of the common good. We remain an unfinished republic. In order to achieve the Ireland that cherishes all equally, we in the Social Democrats have set out new political choices and new policies that will use the resources and wealth in this country to ensure that we build affordable homes, that no child is homeless and that we provide public services. Is féidir linn.

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