Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)

Last Friday, we learned 15,418 people were recorded as homeless in March, another shameful new high. Nearly 5,000 children are now growing up in Ireland without a home. Each homeless child is a tragedy. There are now 22 more children homeless than there were last month. This is a national scandal. It is the civil rights issue of our generation. As legislators, we must do all we can to see this housing disaster addressed. We must build affordable and social homes, protect renters and tackle vacancy and dereliction, but the Government is not doing enough of any of this.

The Taoiseach's party, Fianna Fáil, has held the housing brief for nearly five years. For most of that period, it has simply doubled down on failed Housing for All policies. More recently, it seems, the party is diversifying. It has not launched anything like the "radical" reset the Government's Housing Commission sought and that we in the Labour Party offered. Instead, Fianna Fáil has adopted a new strategy. It is a flying-by-the-seat-of-your-pants approach to housing, with a series of solo runs, none of them based on evidence. Let us take some examples. This year alone, the Government has said it might get rid of rent pressure zones and might give tax breaks to developers. It is flying kites and no one can keep track. We are trying to figure out what the Government is planning to do on housing. Even the junior coalition partner, Fine Gael, is being kept in the dark. Earlier this month, I think we all read with interest that Fine Gael councillors from Cork as well as Deputy Colm Burke had signed a cross-party letter to the housing Minister calling for urgent funding for the tenant in situ scheme to ensure it is effective to keep renters out of homelessness. Today, Fine Gael Councillor Tom O’Leary from Fingal told the Dublin Inquirer, "I just cannot get over that they didn’t maintain the same level of funding", wondering "Why would you mess with a successful scheme that keeps people from being scattered into the wind?". He is right. The Government's changes to this scheme will render it unworkable. We are hearing from councillors around the country that evictions from the private rented sector are driving the monthly increases in homelessness. With the Government's changes to the scheme, it seems it has given up on it. Has it given up on ending homelessness altogether?

Of course, there is another new policy, shrouded in secrecy so far and announced by the Minister, Deputy Browne, who said he was going to create a new housing "maverick", a fixer-in-chief. The Taoiseach does not like the name "tsar", and nor do I, with its Russian connotations, so he is calling it the new housing activation office. However, it is another new policy that is clearly putting Fine Gael noses out of joint, as the Tánaiste has made clear. It also comes at an extraordinary and unjustifiable price tag. Maybe the Russian name is appropriate because it is a price that might be approved of by a Russian oligarch, but it is not acceptable. What exactly is the housing activation office? What will it do? Will it be underpinned by legislation? All we have been told is it will put boots on the ground and co-ordinate delivery of housing. This is meaningless and already the job of the Minister for housing, the housing Department and the Land Development Agency.

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