Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Ar an gcéad dul síos, gabhaim buíochas leis na Daonlathaithe Sóisialta as ucht an rún seo a ardú ar maidin. Tabharfaimid tacaíocht don rún agus táimid in éadan leasú an Rialtais.

I can just add to what Deputy Ó Broin has said and Deputy Hearne about the failure of the senior Minister to come to the House. It now seems he is hiding and that he is scared to actually talk about housing. It is ridiculous. There is no doubt the public was sold a pup in the last election. People were promised 40,000 new homes. The CSO made it clear for quite a while that the Government was not going to get close to 40,000 but it promised it again and again. People desperately wanted to believe it was true but it was all politics at its most cynical. However, the truth is out now. We know now that the Government came up 10,000 homes short, home building is declining and the housing crisis is deepening. All that is left in the public is an air of desperation as the Government tries to distract from the failures of the past. The Government has an army of media advisers spinning all types of nonsense, such as the idea that pandering to investment funds is some kind of new idea, that the only way to reduce rents is actually to increase rents and that we are doing renters a favour, if anyone wants to believe the Taoiseach, or that cowboy Celtic tiger policies are the answer.

The Government is trying to blame the private sector in all of this. The Taoiseach keeps telling us the State cannot do everything. This is pure and utter spin. Who is claiming the State should do everything?

See this speech in context