Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The tenant in situ scheme has saved many families across north Kildare from homelessness due to the housing crisis created by this Government and the almost identical Government before it. Abandoning this scheme is going to leave people in a housing limbo suddenly facing homelessness. The tenant in situ scheme has offered a lifeline to those facing emergency accommodation, sofa surfing, sleeping in their cars or, worse, sleeping rough. It is a vital homelessness prevention scheme, yet it has been up to Sinn Féin and others to pressurise this Government time and again into keeping the scheme and making sure it works. Indeed, it was the Opposition that pressured the Government into setting it up in the first place.

County Kildare is currently sixth in the State outside of Dublin for adults accessing emergency accommodation, with an 11% increase from last year. It will be more than an 11% increase next year if we get rid of the scheme. It is hard to believe this Government is serious about housing when we see homelessness figures continuously rise, the untruths told about housing targets during the previous general election, and our own Taoiseach laughing it up about the housing crisis in Ireland with a property tycoon in the Oval Office at the White House. We should not be surprised; this is the company Fianna Fáil keeps. It is the party of the Galway tent, developers and speculators. While its buddies are all profiting off a crisis that party has created, an entire generation is starting to emigrate. I have seen how my daughter's friends are starting to emigrate, and those who cannot afford it are being locked out of housing. Mo náire sibh.

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