Joanna Byrne (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It should come as no surprise that Sinn Féin supports the principle behind this Private Members’ motion, as many of the policy proposals are in line with Sinn Féin’s housing policy. Of course, correction is needed. The Government’s overall housing policy has not worked to date and will not work in the future. To think otherwise is to ignore the facts. While the Minister, Deputy Browne, gave his opinion that the Government’s housing policies are working, opinions are simply not the facts. The housing lists are growing in county and city councils throughout the State. Homelessness is growing. The generation of children raised in emergency accommodation or living long term in hotel rooms is growing. Those are the facts. There has been a 35% increase in those needing emergency accommodation in my home county of Louth in just one year. That is a fact. It gives me no pleasure to say any of this. For the common good, I want every Government housing and homelessness policy to be effective for every single person on the housing list, for every one of the hidden homeless, for every family in a homeless hub, and for all of those in emergency accommodation. I want the policies to work, but they do not and will not. To think they will work is to ignore the facts.

The Housing Commission has urged the Government to adopt its proposals for more new homes. We and the other Opposition parties have put forward our proposals to deliver more homes and to put a roof over every citizen’s head. The Government amendment to this Private Members’ motion is more of the same lines repeated, denying facts and again not addressing the issue. The Government needs to course-correct on its housing and homeless policies now. It needs to enact an emergency response that this Private Members' motion is calling for, not for the Opposition or for those of us who are advocating for this, rather for the more than 15,000 homeless people, of whom nearly 5,000 are children, for the tens of thousands of people languishing on local authority housing waiting lists and for the young generation who is locked out of home ownership in this country.

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