Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We know that housing is the single most immediate challenge facing this Government - the civil rights issue of this generation. Last week, the Labour Party offered a motion that was the first opportunity for TDs to debate housing in this Dáil term. The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage was a no-show and there was tumbleweed on the Government benches during the debate. No senior Minister showed up to contribute to the debate on our serious and constructive proposals which offered a credible pathway to ramp up the delivery of homes. The lack of input from Government suggests it is not taking the housing crisis seriously.

In the debate, I suggested that the Government was devoid of ambition and ideas in tackling the housing crisis. It seems, however, that it does have ideas and we have heard two ideas from the Taoiseach and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The first is to end rent pressure zones without a safety net for renters while the second is to return to the era of Celtic tiger tax breaks for developers. Indeed, just now on the radio, the Minister said that tax breaks must be on the table. These ideas from Fianna Fáil represent an audacious step for sure but one in the wrong direction and not the radical reset for which the Housing Commission called. If the Taoiseach was so convinced that lifting rent pressure zones and introducing tax breaks for developers would solve the housing crisis, the question is why Fianna Fáil did not seek a mandate for those policies in the last general election. It seems as if it is making policy on the hoof and it seems Fine Gael agrees with this critique. There is now a clear split in Government ranks. We understand the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, has set his face repeatedly against the introduction of tax breaks for developers. The former Minister for housing, Eoghan Murphy, documented this in his own book where tax breaks were previously ruled out. Both parties are contradicting each other on this on the airwaves. If they cannot communicate with each other, how does this sound to those at the sharp end of the housing crisis - the parents of the 4,500 children in emergency accommodation? How does this sound when Government cannot agree on what policies it is going to introduce?

We understand the Cabinet committee on housing has met and has agreed to draft a new housing plan. We welcome this focus and the fact we may now say farewell to Housing for All, which has patently failed, but we are concerned about what this new review will deliver. We do not want to see it deliver tax breaks that fail in the supply of more homes. We want to see a vision for an active State - a State that would take on stronger CPO powers, provide protections for renters, ensure the delivery of homes as a public good and intervene to address the real scourge of vacancy and dereliction across the country where we know 81,000 residential properties were vacant in the final quarter of last year, of which 14,000 were in Dublin. That crisis is just one example of lack of ambition and lack of radical policies. Will the Government's new plan take seriously the need to protect renters and take seriously the scourge of vacancy and dereliction or will we see a return to failed Fianna Fáil policies on tax breaks for developers?

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