Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Social Democrats for bringing this motion. There are six basic asks in their motion. They are pretty basic when we have a housing crisis with just under 15,000 people homeless. Homeless accommodation in Galway is at capacity and people are waiting between 15 and 20 years. People are living in tents. People are living in cars. People are sleeping on couches. I have talked more on this subject than any other subject since I came in here in 2016. This Government and previous governments have absolutely created this crisis with their policies. One of the worst was the HAP, and the legislation for it, which twisted language on its head and called the housing assistance payment - money straight into the landlord's pocket - social housing. Another was our utter failure to build public housing on public land. Even now when we talk about that, it is a sleight of hand with regard to social housing. HAP is not social housing. Social and public housing is local authorities, which should be properly funded, building public housing on public land.

I read the Simon report every quarter, which tells us there are no properties available in Galway under any HAP scheme. I am here as somebody from Galway where people daily come into my office begging me to do something as a TD. We have a tenant in situ scheme. I have often described the Government's policy and previous policies as a jigsaw with no overall picture. It relies on the market. When the market fails to provide, it bolsters the market with a jigsaw of schemes. One of them is the tenant in situ scheme, and then like that it just stops it. The Government encourages the councils, like the city council in Galway, to buy houses to protect the tenant when the house is being sold and then with a phone call, it says it is suspended. I have desperately tried both Ministers of State. I have asked the Taoiseach. I have used every parliamentary method to try to get an answer - parliamentary questions, standing up under promised legislation, a Topical Issue last night and again now. Is the tenant in situ scheme suspended or not, pending the new scheme? Will the Ministers of State answer that to make language mean something?

See this speech in context