Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

If the Taoiseach cannot even win over his colleagues in Fine Gael, he is in big trouble. This is the party that transcribed developer lobby documents and turned them into government policy. Fine Gael was also the first to roll out the red carpet for investment funds and it has consistently failed to close tax loopholes exploited by international investors. However, even Fine Gael Ministers are baulking at the suggestion that enriching developers and funds even further is a solution to the housing disaster.

The Taoiseach is actually very close to understanding the problem in housing: he has acknowledged that his plan is not working and he has identified that there needs to be radical change, but doubling down on failed policy is not a change. It is more of the same and people out there cannot afford five more years of failure. Last week, Accord released a survey which found that 84% of people are putting off getting married and having a family due to the housing crisis. This is not just a housing disaster - it is a housing catastrophe. There are people the length and breadth of this country who feel locked out and left behind because the Government and previous governments have failed them.

Every time I raise the housing disaster, the Taoiseach tells me that the Social Democrats have no solutions or are not being constructive. That is just lazy spin. Tomorrow in the Dáil, we will discuss a Social Democrats motion on housing that puts forward real change and real credible solutions. The Taoiseach asked about how to finance housing construction. One of our proposals is to use some of the €160 billion that is on deposit in Irish banks to fund the construction of affordable homes. This has been done successfully for decades in France. Why not do it here? We also want to use EU funding streams to deliver affordable homes. When I said this to the Taoiseach last week, he dismissed it out of hand even though a report commissioned by one of his MEPs goes into great detail about how this can be done. That report was done by Housing Europe, which is the leading expert in how to fund the construction of affordable housing in Europe. The Taoiseach dismissed it out of hand. I do not know if anyone in the Government has even read the report.

I have two questions for the Taoiseach. Has he now dropped his proposals for tax incentives? Will the Government vote for and implement the constructive solutions put forward by the Social Democrats in our motion tomorrow?

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