Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The most deeply frustrating part of this job is dealing with daily devastating stories of people who exist in utter despair and anxiety because they see no light at the end of the tunnel. When I came into the Chamber today, I received a text from a man in his 60s who was living in his family home which is now being sold. He told me he is in a state of limbo because he has not been on the list for a sufficient number of years. He would need to be 15 or 16 years on the list before he would be considered. He is looking at going into emergency accommodation - a man in his mid-60s. We also deal almost weekly with people under notice to quit, whose homes are being sold, who have young families - often, their children have disabilities - and many people waiting more than 12 years on the list.

The absence of one-bedroom and two-bedroom accommodation is a crisis. It all goes back to the post-crash period when the Fine Gael-led Government stopped building social housing and hoped that the market, which had mostly provided three-bedroom semi-detached houses, would mop up the problem but it has not. The abolition of the town councils did not help either.

This Housing Commission report is a damning indictment of the Government's failed approach to housing. The Government tried to ignore it for nearly a year but it cannot ignore the facts. We have never been in a worse position. For over ten years now ordinary workers and families have been living in crisis whereby securing a roof over one's head is nearly impossible. The dream of having a home of one's own seems like pure fantasy. Year in, year out every single housing target is missed and the number of people experiencing homelessness has reached record heights. Rents, too, are at record levels and many feel that they have to emigrate, that it is their only escape.

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have shown us time and again that they have no intention of solving the housing crisis. The fundamental approach of the Government of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Independents is to just build more expensive units and that will solve the problem. The Government is failing to deal with the need for more social housing, particularly one-bedroom and two-bedroom houses. That is what is required for the people who are coming to my office feeling anxious, in despair and filled with worry. This Government cares more about saving face than about the suffering of ordinary people. This utter disregard for the plight of these people is what allowed the Government to intentionally mislead the public during the general election campaign. It is also what allows the Government to brush off today's stark warning from the Central Bank, ignore the Housing Commission report and allow the problems that have beset this country for the past ten or 15 years in particular to continue.

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