Dáil debates

Wednesday, 2 April 2025

Housing Emergency Measures: Motion [Private Members]

 

3:30 am

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

It is obvious the Government does not want to solve the housing crisis. It has dropped the pretence. It has no targets, it is curtailing the tenant in situ scheme, it has always resisted rent controls and its homelessness figures continue to rise. It does absolutely nothing about it. It does not want to stop the flow into homelessness. It is planning to remove even the minimal rent controls. It does not want to solve the housing crisis. The truth about the Government's housing policy was revealed in the White House in the exchange between Donald Trump and Micheál Martin. When Trump said that the housing crisis in this country was a sign of success, the Taoiseach said it was a good answer and he had not thought of that one. Why does Trump think it is a success? He is a property speculator, a billionaire and a landlord. He makes money when house prices and rents are high, when there is a shortage of housing and when there is poor quality housing. That is how they make money. That is how the rich in this country make money. That is how the property investors make money. They have no interest in solving the housing crisis. In fact, they have an interest in making sure we do not solve the housing crisis because if there was an adequate supply of affordable housing, built on a not-for-profit basis, they could not make profit. That is the simple truth and that is why the Government resists every measure to address the housing crisis. It is there to represent the landlords, the property speculators, the developers, the Trumps of this world and their Irish equivalents. That is what the Government is, that is what it is doing and that was revealed in the White House. You could even see it from the lack of energy in the Minister's speech. He reads off the script. The Government does not flipping care anymore. We are dropping the pretence that we are trying to solve this. This relates to defective and poor quality buildings. It is profitable for the people who build houses to cut corners. They do not put in fire breaks, do not put in proper materials, and do not check the houses in case they turn out to be defective because it would cut into their profits. It is greed, greed, greed. That is what the Government represents and ordinary people are suffering.

It also relates to another issue I would like to raise again about the thresholds. If someone is on a working family payment, and is working, that can take them over the threshold for social housing. Thousands and thousands of working people who go out, work hard and pay their taxes are taken off the housing lists after ten or 15 years waiting when they are on a working family payment or just because they get a pay rise or they do a bit of over time. It is gone and they have no chance whatsoever. They are trapped in homelessness or in squalid conditions with multiple generations living in poor quality housing. I have raised this again and again. It also affects the attitude in councils because they want people to live in squalid conditions because they want to say they, "Oh we cannot make it easy for you to have a decent house". I have been fighting cases in Sallynoggin and in Shankill now where people are living in housing of crappy quality because the Government does not believe housing that is secure, affordable and decent is a right. It is a right but the profit-hungry developers which the Government represents make money from it so it does not want to do anything.

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