Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This devastating housing crisis was created by the privatisation of public housing by Fianna Fáil under the then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. Local authorities were prevented from building social and affordable housing for more than 20 years and this policy was continued by successive Governments. The housing crisis is undermining the social fabric of Irish society. Everybody says repeatedly that housing is the single biggest issue facing the country. The Taoiseach and the Tánaiste tell us daily that it is their highest priority. We have heard that for more than ten years but the crisis has got worse year after year. More than 15,000 families are homeless, among whom 5,000 are children, while more than 120,000 families are on local authority waiting lists or housing assistance payment. There are sky-rocketing, extortionate rents and thousands of people in their 30s and 40s are living in their childhood bedrooms. A huge cohort of families on very average incomes are locked out of the property market and home ownership. Slightly over the limit for getting onto a local authority housing list but without enough income to get a mortgage, they are condemned for ever more to pay huge rents. In fact, they are condemned to poverty.

The housing crisis is simply not being taken seriously, and the only way to make sure it will be is to legally oblige the State to tackle the crisis as an emergency. A housing emergency must be declared in law. In the Thirty-second Dáil, I introduced a Private Member's Bill called Housing Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill, which I intend to reintroduce at the earliest opportunity. Of course, there is precedent for that. When the Fianna Fáil Government crashed the economy and handed over the sovereignty of the State to the International Monetary Fund, there were huge cutbacks based on the financial emergency measures in the public interest. This can be done. The emergency can be declared in law. That should and must be done immediately.

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