Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish both Ministers well in their new roles. However, I must say that this Government has yet to show the political will needed to resolve the housing crisis. This has been made more apparent in recent weeks as the Government's pre-election confidence in reaching its housing targets was revealed to be utter fantasy. I hope the Government takes note of the Housing Commission's report because something needs to change radically. I also hope the Government will, as Deputy Ó Broin said, give the Oireachtas committee the opportunity to debate the report, to challenge the Government on it and to make sure it is implemented.

The housing crisis impacts upon virtually every community in the constituency of Cavan-Monaghan. People cannot find accommodation in the communities in which they wish to live and work. Students struggle to find accommodation while they are away for college. Disproportionate and unsustainable levels of people's wages are spent on the extortionate rents they are paying to vulture funds. The Government sees vulture funds that are uninterested in seeing the housing crisis as a potential excuse to further impoverish renters. It is truly a case of the treatment being worse than the cure.

An entire generation has been locked out of home ownership. I would like to speak of the missed targets for the delivery of affordable homes in Cavan and Monaghan but so lacking is the ambition of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael that they did not even bother to set a target for either county. They tell us that the need is not great enough. The Government is so lacking in political will to deliver affordable homes in Cavan and Monaghan that it does not even put up a facade of trying.

Communities across Ireland are crying out for teachers, healthcare workers and many other vital workers. Many Irish people in Australia, Canada and beyond, the new diaspora of the Government's creation, would be willing to fill these roles if only they had a home to come home to. The Government's failures betray what must be either a lack of interest or an inability to foster an environment that would allow them to return home.

The Housing Commission report eviscerated successive Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil Governments' response to the housing crisis. It described Government housing policy as the result of ineffective decision-making and criticised the lack of consistency in housing policy. Its identification of the need for 60,000 houses a year is in stark contrast to the Government's own targets. It is double what it delivered last year and majorly in excess of what it will deliver this year. It means that the Government is worsening the housing deficit every year.

What is the Government's plan? The Housing Commission has demanded a radical reset. For the people of Cavan and Monaghan, a radical start would be for the Government to finally do what is needed and to take an interest in the people of Ireland and their need for housing.

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