George Lawlor (Wexford, Labour)

The current housing crisis in this country can only be described as a catastrophic failure of leadership and policy, leaving countless families in despair and homelessness while developers and landlords profit from the misery. The Government's inaction and ineffective measures have turned the dream of so many of getting a social house or owning a home into a cruel joke. In my county of Wexford, as of yesterday, there were 2,818 households on the housing list. That number is households, not individual people, and the response of the Government can only be described as ambitionless. In the recent announcement for social housing across the country, the Minister, Deputy Browne, declared that the reason there was no allocation for Wexford was, effectively, that it was doing grand and was meeting its targets. The targets for County Wexford, with nearly 3,000 households languishing on the housing list, are 189 homes for 2025 and 193 social homes for 2026. These are absolutely paltry numbers when we consider the number of families crying out for a roof over their heads, a place to call home for life and security of tenure.

Of course, the real figures of the housing crisis are completely masked by the fact that so many hardworking families and individuals are prevented from accessing the housing list in the first place because of the insulting income thresholds. I will give an example of the ridiculous reality in my county. A couple, both earning just the minimum wage, are prevented from accessing social housing supports or going on the housing list in County Wexford because they are deemed to be in excess of the threshold. In fact, they are deemed to be well in excess of the threshold, preventing them from receiving any assistance. They are both earning the minimum wage and are deemed to be earning too much.

What happens to these hardworking people who happen to have a job? They are forced into the private rental market and in many cases condemned to poverty as a result. They are forced to pay thousands of euro every year in rent to the private sector because their low wages are deemed to be too high. These people are plunged not only into despair but into poverty as a result of the policies that have been foisted on them by this Government and the previous Government when it comes to the provision of social housing in this country. These people have simply no hope of ever accessing either a social house or purchasing a house themselves despite working hard day in, day out to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads.

I will give a real-life example of the damage the Government's policies are doing. A family whom my office and I are working with, a husband and wife with three children with additional needs, were forced to leave their home last year and move into a damp, 30-year-old mobile home just outside Wexford town. What was their crime? He was a hardworking father with a wage that put them €625 above the Government's ridiculously low thresholds. These are the real-life results of the policies of the Government and how they have devastating impacts on hardworking families. It simply has to stop.

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